Polson’s Milton, Maki 3rd at State Juniors golf

POLSON — Playing in vastly improved conditions, Frenchtown’s Katie Lewis and Billings’ Tye Boone took medalist honors at the 58th Montana State Juniors golf championship that concluded Wednesday at Polson Bay Golf Course. 

After two rounds of rain, wind and cloud cover, the sun emerged for the third and final round, played on the Olde Nine at Polson Bay.  Lewis managed to defend her girls title, while Billings Skyview’s Boone added a junior title to his State AA title from last fall. 

Lewis shot a 78 Wednesday for a three-round score of 232, 16 over par. The two-time State A champion is now also the two-time Montana State Junior’s titlist, a rare feat that’s been achieved three times in the last 25 years: Teigan Avery in 2014-15 and Maggie Crippen in 2011-12.  

Lewis, a senior to be at Frenchtown, has a chance to be the first girl to ever win three straight High School titles and three straight Montana State Junior Championships. 

She continues to win while being surrounded by a very talented class of golfers. Bella Johnson finished in second place with a three-day score of 236 (79-80-77). Her third round of 77 was the best individual performance of the day, helped in part by notching four birdies in the final 10 holes.  

Johnson twice won the State AA championship for Billings West and is set to compete at the University of Montana. 

Polson’s Ashley Maki and Billings’ Kenzie Walsh finished tied for third at +29 (245). Maki, who was part of a State A team championship with Polson last fall, made a birdie on hole 18 to stay tied with Walsh. Shei will play golf at Whitworth University next fall.  

Walsh meanwhile qualified for the Girls Junior Americas Cup for the third year in a row, and she will take her talents to Western Washington University. In fifth place was Great Falls’ All-State golfer, Hanna Boyd, who finished at +33 over the three rounds.   

Boone had his work cut out:  Coming into the third round a stroke behind Polson’s Max Milton, he fired a 2-under 70 to win by two strokes.  

After bogeying holes 5 and 7, Boone played mistake-free golf the rest of the way. He was helped by four birdies overall (holes 4, 10, 12 and 15). His final three-day score was 213 (71-72-70).  

Coming in second was Pinesdale’s Brady Powell, who shot up the leaderboard after finishing the round with a 4-under 68. Aside from a bogey on No. 8, Powell played flawless golf with five birdies (6, 10, 13, 15 and 18) and the rest were pars. He came intot he day in sixth place, at 3-over, and ended up 1-under. 

Milton finished third place at even par. He had two birdies on the day, on 2 and 9. The 14-year-old will be going into his freshman season this fall.  

Following Milton was Missoula’s Kade McDonough, who finished in fourth place at 3 over; McDonough has collected numerous MSGA awards and titles over the years and will soon be off golfing for the University of Utah.  He recently captured the Montana State Match Play Championship for the second time in a row. 

Rounding out the top five was a tie between Missoula’s Jack Schaefer and Helena’s John Gilbert at 4 over. Schaefer had the lowest round of the tournament at 67, including eight birdies, which moved him up from ninth. 

Gilbert finished the day at 76, capping off a strong three-day performance for the soon-to-be sophomore out of Capital High School.    

The top four boys and girls ages 14-18 will represent Montana in the Junior Americas Cups in Midway, Utah July 28-August 1. 

— Nick Dietzen