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CMR tennis duo, Great Falls High’s Klinker named top Co-Male Athletes of Spring season

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CMR tennis duo, Great Falls High’s Klinker named top Co-Male Athletes of Spring season

Boys athletes in Great Falls from both sides of the river reached the pinnacle this spring.

For all of their achievements, the C.M. Russell High tennis doubles team of Josh Stimac and Eli Crist and Great Falls High track and field star Scott Klinker have been named the Tribune’s Co-Male Athletes of the Spring.

Stimac and Crist were state doubles and team tennis champions in Bozeman on Memorial Day weekend while Klinker continued to rewrite the record books and claim two track titles.

Here’s a rundown of what these athletes accomplished this spring. Stay tuned in the coming weeks for Tribune’s articles on the Male and Female Athletes of the Year.

CMR’s Josh Stimac and Eli Crist

Both Stimac and Crist had seen success apart from each other in their careers, but together they and the Rustlers flourished.

Stimac was a three-time state qualifier in doubles heading into his senior year, finishing third with then partner Brady Pike following a second-place showing at state as a sophomore with Carter Corn. CMR finished tied for first as a team with Bozeman in his sophomore season and were tied for second last year with Kalispell Glacier.

Crist also scored valuable points on last year’s trophy team in singles with a pair of match victories as a freshman in the runner-up state finish in Kalispell.

With Brady Pike leaving for graduation, Stimac was in need of yet another doubles partner. Over the summer, he and Crist played in tournaments together and developed their game together while also growing their friendship.

“As we started to generate that connection between us, we decided we should run doubles this year,” Crist said earlier this year. “And I’m just really glad it’s been paying off. We’ve been able to push each other and use each other to get as far as we can go.”

The pair lost an early regular-season match to Sam Engellant and Will Rudbach of Northern AA rival Glacier but would make the most of their next two cracks at them down the line. At the divisional tournament, Stimac and Crist didn’t lose a set until the semifinal round before taking down Engellant and Rudbach 6-3, 6-3 in the finals.

At the state tournament, the pair won its first two matches 6-2, 6-4 before a 7-5, 7-5 victory in the state semis over Bozeman’s Collin Gross and Oliver Ward.

In the finals, the pair roared to a 6-0, 6-2 triumph over Rudbach and Engellant once again as the Rustlers won the team trophy outright with 28 points, eight ahead of second-place Bozeman High and Gallatin.

“They were amazing,” said CMR boys’ tennis coach Byron Boyd, the MCA boys’ Coach of the Year, following the tournament. “The way they won the final was just dominant. I couldn’t be prouder of them.”

Said Crist: “We’re going to be able to always have this moment of us taking state and it’s never going to die.”

Aeden Bingham and Conner Sherman also placed sixth for the Rustlers in the team win, and Kade Haverlandt was a state qualifier.

While Stimac will graduate, the CMR boys return not only Crist but several young successful players such as freshman state semifinalist Fleming Daniel and his twin brother Howard, who won the Northern AA tournament this year.

Stimac said it was a privilege to go out on top with the Rustlers.

“It was always my goal as a kid going around CMR and seeing all the champions to be one of them,” Stimac said. “I’m super glad that I got to be a part of that and the legacy of CMR.”

Klinker a legendary GFH, Montana leaper

When Scott Klinker was up to jump this season, everyone watched.

That went double for the state track meet at Memorial Stadium on Memorial Day weekend.

The senior lived up to all the hype on his first long jump attempt on Friday, springing forward for a leap of 24 feet, 5.5 inches. The jump brought the crowd to its feet and had his fellow competitors whooping in amazement as he reached nearly 10 inches over the previous All-Class state record set in 1988 (23-08).

While the jump shattered the record, it was ruled to be a wind-aided attempt by officials, therefore not counting toward the All-Class mark. While elated with a state championship, Great Falls High head coach Dave Killian said Klinker was understandably a bit let down with not seeing the record officially fall.

However, Klinker would still go down in the history books for the best official long jump in the history of Memorial Stadium, as well as extending his own Bison all-time program record.

“You have a stadium record and everyone who was at Memorial saw that,” Killian said he told Klinker. “You have a Great Falls High record and that isn’t going anywhere for a long, long time. You’re going to remember that feeling for the rest of your life.”

Klinker, the defending state triple jump champion, went on to repeat in the event on Saturday with a mark of 48 feet, 0.5 inches. His personal-best triple jump came on his final attempt as he retook the event lead from Butte’s Sam Henderson, who bested his own personal record by nearly a foot-and-a-half to briefly hold the lead.

“He knows what he’s capable of,” Killian said of Klinker’s mindset. “He’s not braggy about it, he just knows. He just goes ‘Ok, my turn again.’”

Killian added that while Klinker competes with a confidence, he is also one to always display sportsmanship.

“His smile in infectious,” Killian said. “He is one of the friendliest kids you’ll ever meet.”

Klinker also finished second to Gallatin’s Quinn Clark (6-foot-8) in the high jump at 6-4, his second All-State finish in that event, ending his Bison track career with the three titles and three top-six accolades in two years. He holds the three best long jumps in school history, all hit this season, while also tying previous record-holder Mark Reed (1983) at 23-02 at the crosstown meet in early May. His jump at the Eastern AA divisional in Bozeman is also an all-time record for the meet and surpassed Kelly Friede of Huntley Project’s 1988 All-Class record (23-08), which can only be broken at a state meet.

More: Great Falls High, CMR school-record holders extend marks at Eastern AA divisional track

Killian credited the work Klinker put in with long and triple jumps coach Chris Napierala and high jump coach Keaton Brady for the continued progress showed this season.

“(Napierala and Brady) find these little tools to get them prepped and ready,” Killian said. “When you’ve got these great athletes, they find the technique that gets them further and higher.”

While the wind may have yet again briefly put a damper on something in Great Falls last weekend, nobody can take away the moments Klinker created.

“(The All-Class record) is just a piece of paper,” Killian said. “Those lasting memories, we live our lives through experience, not numbers on a website. It was just special.”

Photo provided by Matt Ehnes of Jared’s Detours.

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