With Senior Ellie  Crum capturing her second state singles championship, her younger sister Molly bringing home third in singles, and Rachel Gorsuch and Katie Cerotzcke battling but coming one game short of competing for third, the team was able to bring home the second place trophy. 

Ellie Crum finished off a fine high school career, and she is now ready to move on to her college career.  Crum has accepted a scholarship to stay in state and play for the bobcats at Montana State University next year.  She finished this year with an undefeated record, as she also did last year.

Her sister Molly also wrapped up a fine season and we look forward to seeing her compete over the next three years.  She hopes to follow in her sisters footsteps and win her own singles state championship, or multiple championships.

Montana has been known to have unpredictable weather and this year has definitely put an exclaimation point on this statement.  We had both snow and 70 degree days in April making it hard to get in good practices and meets or just be outdoors.

With good weather forecasted for the next week, many athletes and avid outdoorsman are hoping to get in some games or outdoor activities.  With such bi-polar weather, it makes it hard for spring sport athletes.  Countless games and meets have been cancelled this season due to weather conditions. 

Athletes hope to have good weather throughout the rest of the year, so they can finish their seasons out without anymore delays or cancellations.

Friday night action included late models, modifieds, street stock, and pure stock.  There was some great racing to kick off the season.  The night started out with a good showing in the pure stock heat races.

With 17 cars competing, the class held three heat races.  In the first heat of the season, pole sitter, Sean McBee raced car 35 to the first victory of the season followed by Brice Miesmer in heat two and Carl Sangrey in heat number three.  After multiple late race crashes, Brice Miesmer captured the win with Greg Azure, Jerry Sangrey Jr., Cody Ryan and Matt O’Connell rounding out the top 5.

For the street stocks, the night started strong with 16 cars on hand.  In all three heat races, the winners started on the front row with Marvin Gonzales, Micheal Price and Ron Weber grabbing the victories.  In the main event, Troy Weninger was able to improve from his seventh place starting position to capture his first main event victory.  Paul Lease was a close second with Billy Warehime, Beau Brown and Warren Samoy to round out the top 5.

The modified class had a small showing on opening night, so they were only able to hold one heat race.  Dave Freeman charged to the front and was able to hold on to the lead for the rest of the race.  In the main event, it seemed Freeman was going to pull of a sweep but instead, after holding half of a lap lead over the rest of the field, Freeman’s car broke leaving Mark Wermling to take the checkered flag.

11 late models showed up from around Montana and Canada to compete.  In the first of two heat Jim Zaremski was able to maintain his front row starting position and win his heat race.  In the second of the two heat races, Jody Kropp also started on the front row and held off the field to win. The main event proved to be similar to that of the heat races with the top two starting positions being held by Jim Zaremski and Jody Kropp, and the racers stayed in that order the entire race.  David Smith, David Vennard and Russ Wolfe rounded out the top 5.

Saturday brought in a much colder night, more wrecks and a class new to the Electric City.

The night started out with the cars it finished with the previous night.  With two more cars joining the field, 13 were present to begin the night but 13 were not present in the end.  Jim Zaremski kept the pace he set last night and won his heat race for the second night in a row.  The second heat race provided a little more action.  Going into turn 1 on lap 2 Tommy Eubank rolled his car into the catch fence.  After a delay while attempting to fix the fence, David Smith pulled out a heat race win.  In the main, Zaremski was edged by Rock Degle for the win, David Smith, Rory Minster and Jody Kropp rounded out the top 5.

The street stocks were only minus one car from the previous night due to a mechanical issue.  The first heat race consisted of eight cars with Warren Samoy charging the field from his last place starting position to win.  Heat number two saw Marvin Gonzalez capturing his second heat races win in as many days.  The main event was a close race between Nick Hunter, who had mechanical issues Friday night, Paul Lease and Gonzalez.  Hunter was able to hold off the others charges to hold the top spot.

Super stocks did not race on Friday, so their drivers were ready to jump start their season with 11 cars on hand.  In the first of two heat races, Pat Lamere pulled out a win.  The second heat race was very controversial with the leaders Pacer Popham and Casey Steffenson being black flagged leaving Bill Cooper to the win.  In the main event, heat one race winner gained the lead and never looked back.

Next up were the midwest modifieds, a new class to Electric City Speedway, there were five cars and the 01 of Paul Leach lead all 28 eight laps of their first event winning both the heat and main event.  On the final laps of the main event, the second place car of Jeremy Myers took a scary tumble down the frontstretch, rolling his car  four times. 

To end the night, 12 modifieds put on a show.  Gary Hill won the first heat race with Paul Leach winning the second.  In the main event, after going back and forth for the lead, Rock Degle was able to pull out his second win of the night. 

Races are scheduled to resume May 1, but with snow on the ground it is very likely they will be cancelled.  The most probable time for the next races are May 8, with late models, pure stock, street stock and midwest modifieds racing.

America’s 5-3 hockey victory over the Candian team fell ironically close to the aniversary of the “Miracel on Ice,” the unprecedented American upset over the Soviet Union. The only difference between the two upsets came in the fact that, despite the overwhelming odds of a Candian gold, this Amercian team came to the ice better conditioned, more confident and more experienced. Now, the Canadians, while not out of the medal race yet, face a long, hard path back to the podium.

Amercian speed skater Apollo Ohno made American Winter Olympic history by winning the most collective medals of any athlete at a Winter Olympics and cementing his position as the most decorated winter Olympian athlete of all time.

Amercia currently tops the medal chart at 25, with seven gold, eight silver, ten bronze and 36 events left to run.

The Colts and the Saints went head to head in the 44th annual Super Bowl. With Peyton Manning as the Colts quarterback, hope ran high for another football victory. During the first quarter, the Colts were ahead of the the Saints with the score of 10-0, but New Orleans picked up speed as the game continued. After the half time performance by The Who, Saints coach, Sean Payton attempted an onside kick and this risky moved paid off as the Saints managed to recover the ball. With about five minutes left of the game, Tracy Porter intercepted a pass from Manning and ran 74 yards to a score a touchdown. The Saints determination and risky moves allowed them to capture the Super Bowl title for the first time in franchise history. Saints quarterback, Drew Brees, was selected for MVP of Super Bowl XLIV after winning 31-17 against the Indianapolis Colts.

The Bison wrestling teams had an extremely victorious weekend; the JV and Varsity teams both took first place in their tournaments. The JV team wrestled a tournament in Conrad and the Varsity team wrestled the AA Duals here in the Fieldhouse.

The AA Duals were a challenge to the wrestlers after the first two duals, the Bison team wrestled the  Billings Skyview Eagles and Kallispell Flathead Braves, both teams have ranked higher than Great Falls High at State in previous years.

Usually Bison Varsity rank around the third place range at tournaments, but Saturday they took a victory after sophomore Cole Mendenhall pinned his opponent from Kalispell and earned enough team points to place Bison ahead of Kallispell for the championship.