Swingin'

Fall was definitely in the air Thursday morning at Prairie Farms Golf Course. And why shouldn’t it have been as the course played host to Havre’s official kickoff to the fall sports season.

On a cool, but perfect day for golf at Prairie Farms, the Havre High golf teams hosted the 2016 Havre Golf Invitational, and the Blue Ponies, playing in their second meet of the season, took advantage of their home course.

With a tough field that included defending Class A state champion Billings Central, the Pony boys had the top two individuals in the tourney in Dustin Haas and Kane Gabrielsen, while the Havre team finished second to the Rams with a score of 344. On the girls side, Havre sophomore Teagan Fee earned a second-place finish individually, which helped her young Pony squad to a third-place finish with a score of 426. Billings Central made it a team sweep with a win in the girls meet, while Lewistown was second.

“It’s always good to see our kids shoot good scores this early in the season,” said HHS head coach Brett Gilman. “It is our home course, so you expect those kinds of scores out of our kids on their home course. And hopefully that trend will continue throughout the year.”

If the Havre boys continue to stay close to Billings Central, like the Ponies did Thursday, that will be a really good trend. Both Haas, and Gabrielsen fired rounds of 80, with Haas winning the individual medalist award via scorecard tiebreaker. The senior duo bested defending state medalist Liam Clancy of Central, as well as his teammate, Samuel Berry, by two strokes each. Havre senior Aden Passon also came in with an 83, which put him in sixth place overall, giving the Pony boys a solid outing.

Havre also got an outstanding 91 from senior Kyle Kirkpatrick, who was the top JV scorer in the field. Gavin Mosbrucker shot 101 and Tommy Brown added a 106 to round out the HHS varsity scoring. Haas, who has shot or tied for the best score in the Havre Invite in each of the last three seasons, along with Gabrielsen, Clancy, Berry and Browning’s Trae Kennerly made up the Top 5 for the day.

But the day didn’t just belong to the HHS boys, who came within eight strokes of the Rams, who were making their first golfing trip to Havre. The Pony girls were also tough, led by Fee, who carded a 91 to finish alone in second place. Just a sophomore, Fee is already making a strong push forward in her second season of varsity high school golf, and her back-nine 44 was outstanding Thursday, as she came in only behind Lewistown’s Kinsey Irvin, who shot 85.

Meanwhile, the HHS girls also got a 107 from senior Mackenzie Tilleman, who was part of a Blue Pony senior contingent playing in their final Havre Invite. Regan Lammers posted a 112 for the Ponies, while Kinzee Peterson and Grace Litzinger each shot 116 to round out the scoring for the Blue Ponies, who finished 26 strokes behind second-place Lewistown.

And while neither Havre team was able to pull off a team title at Prairie Farms, Gilman was more than pleased with what he saw from all of his golfers, and, with the addition of the Rams, he was excited about the competition his boys and girls faced on their home course.

“The day went well, it’s always good when you can get the defending Class A champs to come and play at your course,” Gilman said. “And I think our boys and girls held up real well against that competition. And when our four and five kids step it up a little bit more, we’ll be right there with them. So I was happy with how our kids played and how the tournament went.”

Havre will get right back on the course as the Ponies travel to Bozeman Monday for the Belgrade Invitational. The HHS junior varsity teams will also visit Lewistown Monday, while the Ponies travel to East Glacier for the Browning Invitational next Thursday.

Havre Golf Invitational

At Prairie Farms Golf Course

BOYS

Team Scores: Billings Central 336, Havre 344, Great Falls High JV 371, CMR JV 393, Lewistown 399, Browning 407.

Top 5 Individuals: 1. Dustin Haas, HAV, 80 (scorecard tiebreaker); 2. Kane Gabrielsen, HAV, 80; 3. Samuel Berry, BC, 82 (scorecard tiebreaker), 4. Tre Kennerly, BRW, 82 (scorecard tiebreaker); 5. Liam Clancy, 82.

Teams

Havre – Dustin Haas, 80, Kane Gabrielsen, 80, Aden Passon 83, Gavin Mosbrucker, 101; Tommy Brown 106.

Billings Central – Liam Clancy 82, Samuel Berry 82, Noah Gaudreau, 84, Clay Cebuu, 88; Mathew Hayden 90.

GFH – Teagan Olson 91, Keehgan Lauver, 91, Blake Otheim 93, Tyson St, John 96, Alec Good, 98.

CMR – Brendan Lindseth 89, Zane Potratz 90, Connor Ferguson 94, Paul Morris 120; Tyson Tobacco 144.

Lewistown – Caleb Myers 84, Trevor Ward 87, Ben Kolar 105, Dawson Southworth 123.

Browning – Trae Kennerly 82, Chase Smith 100, Mark Pollack 106, Treleigh Connelly 119, Mathew Conway 159.

Havre JV – Kyle Kirkpatrick 91, Tucker Carlson 96, Nik Keller 99, Hondo Owens 104, Bobby Personett 115.

GIRLS

Team Scores – Billings Central 396, Lewistown 400, Havre 426, CMR JV 448, Browning 449, Great Falls High JV 468.

Top 5 Individuals – 1. Kinsey Irvin, LEW, 85; 2. Teagan Fee, HAV, 91; 3. Perry Widdecombe, BC, 98; 4. Sophia Mascarena, BC, 98; 5. Madison Lewis, LEW, 99.

Teams

Havre – Teagan Fee, 91; Mackenzie Tilleman 107; Regan Lammers 112, Grace Litzinger 116; Kinzee Peterson 116, Marcee Murphy (JV), 124.

Billings Central – Sophia Mascarena 98; Perry Widdecombe 98; McKenna Adolhp 99; Kindar Kuper 101; Chloe Michaelson 114.

Lewistown – Kinsey Irvin 85; Madison Lewis 99; Abby Grameux 100; Val Kolstad 116; Annie Franz 143.

CMR – Morgan Zuimeda 106; Nichole Linder 111, McKenna Osentowski 113; Bailee Potratz 118; Kadyn Nash 150.

GFH – Pressley Bird Rattler 109; KaLonna Gervais 112; Katrina Adkins 113; Sarah Keller 134.

Browning – Sequoia Butterfly 108; Ranessa Skunkcap 112; MaKayla LaBuff 114; Danayia Polk 115.