County golf teams compete at Plains
<p>Alan Ihms chips on to the green during the Plains Invitational. </p>
PLAINS - Wild Horse Golf Course played host to the Plains Invitational on Saturday, April 26.
Golfers from schools throughout northwestern Montana attended, braving the cold temperature and intermittent rainfall to complete the late season tournament.
Dressing warmly with gloves and jackets, both boys and girls played the 9-hole course twice, alternating tee boxes on their first and second time through, to get in the 18 hole round.
The Plains boys’ team placed sixth in the team competition with a cumulative score of 420.
As for the girls, Jade LaDeaux had another impressive day, finishing third in the individual tournament, with a score of 102, through 18 holes.
LaDeaux narrowly missed the second place score of 99, which was held by Jacey Probst of Ronan High School.
Plains coach, Rich Magera spent the day monitoring golfers rate of play, to ensure a reasonably paced tournament, while encouraging his golfers and those on other teams as they worked their way through the course.
The Thompson Falls boys carried the competition with an impressive team score of 323 strokes, more than 30 strokes ahead of the next closest finisher, Seeley-Swan High School.
The Bluehawks had an impressive day all around with four golfers placing in the top ten portion of the standings.
Vinny Gallivan came in second, only four strokes off the lead, shooting a 77 in his final round. Caleb Bates and Dalton Hooten finished close behind their teammate with scores of 80 and 81 respectively.
Jake Smith of Thompson Falls also managed a top ten finish, placing eighth after shooting an 85.
For the ladies, Ronan High School carried the day shooting a team score of 481, 19 points ahead of the runner up team from Loyola Sacred Heart High School of Missoula.
Parents of Plains students provided food, sandwiches and soda for the hungry golfers, who were able to take a break half way through their round, get out of the cold and charge up before heading out for their final nine holes of the day.
Next week the Plains and Thompson Falls Golf teams, with a little under a month left in their season, will head over to St. Regis to participate in a tournament there on May 1st.