MONTANA STATE MEET

Missoula Sentinel Boys Win First Title Since 1984

By Doug Binder, DyeStat Editor

An intriguing Class AA boys team battle turned into an historic outing for Sentinel High of Missoula, which ended Bozeman's 12-year reign and won the championship for the first time since 1984 on the snow-covered grounds of the Rebecca Farm equestrian center in Kalispell.

Montana split the state into east and west to cut down on travel this fall and the two sides never got to compete head to head until the state meet, held over two days. That meant Bozeman never saw Sentinel during the regular season, although the Hawks were well aware of Missoula Hellgate after winning the 2019 title on a sixth-runner tiebreaker. 

It turned out Hellgate was not the biggest threat. Sentinel beat Hellgate for the Missoula city title Oct. 16 in a 24-32 dual meet. 

On Saturday, Tanner Klumpf came up big for Sentinel with a second-place finish behind Bozeman senior and AA individual champion Stirling Marshall-Pryde (16:35.4). Klumpf led a deep Sentinel team that had the best 4, 5, 6 and 7 runners in the field. 

Sentinel scored 59 points. Hellgate, led by Ignatius Fitzgerald's third-place finish, was second with 67 points. Bozeman was third with 69 points. 

The Bozeman girls put six runners in the top 13 and edged Hellgate 43-47 for the Hawks' 13th title in 14 years. 

Kensey May, a junior at Hellgate who returned to Montana from Virginia, upset defending champion Kylie Hartnett of Helena to capture the girls AA individual title in 19:21.0. Hartnett was second in 19:26.8. May was the Virginia 1A state champion in 2019 and placed 37th at Foot Locker South.

Hellgate put three runners in front of Bozeman freshman leader Natalie Nicholas in fifth. The Hawks went 5-6-9-11-12-13.  

In the A/B competitions on Friday, Hamilston's boys scored 35 points to claim the Class A title as juniors Colter Purcell and Colter Kirkland went 1-2. 

Brynnli Poulsen from Hamilton defended her title by running 19:02.3 and winning by a margin of 51 seconds. 

Laurel put four in the top 13 on the way to the girls A team title. 

Lincoln County's boys and Broadwater's girls retained their team championships in Class B after both school won for the first time in 2019. Zander Ackerman of Wolf Point edged out Justin Morgan of Thompson Falls in the boys race, 17:16.8 to 17:17.6. 

Hallie Hemenway of Manhattan won the girls B title in 20:10.9.

Manhattan Christian rolled to big wins in the Class C races on Saturday. The boys went 2-3-4-5-6-7, which was overkill when only three runners got scored. They were all chasing Samuel Smith of Richey-Lambert, who ran 17:04.1 for the victory. 

Lindsey Paulson of Belt/Centerville won the girls Class C race by a minute, in 20:50.7. 

Team Champions

Class AA - Missoula Sentinel boys 59 points, Bozeman girls 43 points - RESULTS

Class A - Hamilton boys 35 points, Laurel girls 50 points - RESULTS

Class B - Lincoln County boys 63 points, Broadwater girls 59 points - RESULTS

Class C - Manhattan Christian boys 9 points, Manhattan Christian girls 23 points (scoring three) - RESULTS