Local / State Snapshots

By The Associated Press - 01/14/2009

Vaculin, Barker earn weekly Frontier honors BILLINGS (AP) — Athletes from Carroll College and Montana State-Northern have been named the Frontier Conference basketball players of the week.

Carroll forward Chad Vaculin was named the men's player of the week after averaging 20 points and 4.5 rebounds in two road wins for the Saints. The senior from Murray, Utah, helped Carroll to a 70-65 win at Montana Tech and a 99-87 overtime win at Montana Western.

Northern center Stacey Barker earned the women's award after averaging 23 points, 15.5 rebounds and 4.5 blocked shots in weekend games against ranked teams. The senior from Taylorsville, Utah, had 27 points, 21 rebounds and nine blocked shots in an 89-83 overtime win over No. 11 Lewis-Clark State. The Skylights fell 67-55 to No. 21 Westminster College.

Larson wins title at Silver Gloves tourney Cody Larson of the Butte-based Ring Boxing Club won a title at 85 pounds in the Region 7 Pacific Northwest Silver Gloves amateur boxing tournament held Saturday in Rock Springs, Wyo.

Larson won a decision over Neherriah Gomez, the Wyoming champion, to earn the trip to the national Silver Gloves tournament scheduled for Feb. 1-5 in Independence, Mo.

The regional Silver Gloves covered the Montana-Oregon-Idaho-Wyoming area.

The Ring club had other boxers representing Montana in the bouts. Colby Dinius-LeCoure lost in the finals of the 75-pound weight class on a decision to Adria Sisneros of Wyoming. Cody Tonkin, competing at 95 pounds, was also a runner-up, being outpointed in the title bout by Johnny Rodriguez of Idaho. And, at 125 pounds, Mike Frodsham dropped a decision in the finals to Amaro Allegos of Idaho.

The Butte club has scheduled its smoker for Saturday, Jan. 17 at 7 p.m. in the club facilities located in the upstairs of the Terminal Foods building on Park Street in Uptown Butte. Coach Bob LeCoure said teams from all over Montana will be represented.

Boston, Smith win horseshoe contest Jack Boston of Bozeman and Dan Smith of Anaconda were winners of the horseshoe pitching contest held at Price's Indoor Pits in Avon on Saturday.

Boston won the A Class with five wins, one loss and 40.66 percent ringers. Darrell Beckwith of Missoula was second at 4-2 and 50 percent. Jack Price of Avon finished third at 2-4 and 37 percent. Beckwith had the high game with 58 percent.

In the B Class, Smith had the best record with five wins, one loss and 24.33 percent ringers. He also had the high game with 38 percent. Bruce Kahm of Anaconda was second with 3-3 and 24.66 percent. Glenn Cook of Deer Lodge had 3-3 with 23.33 percent for third place.

Panthers pounce on Manhattan Christian CHURCHILL — Matt Thibault scored 14 points, and Jimmy Hook tossed in 11 to lead the Panthers to the non-conference win, 52-38.

Alex Potts tossed in 10 points to lead Christian in the loss.

BELGRADE (3-5) — Kyle Hunter 0 0-0 0, Sean Taylor 2 0-3 4, Derek Crane 1 1-2 3, Bobby Hirsch 3 0-0 6, Corey Lemon 2 1-3 6, Jimmy Hook 2 6-10 11, Matt Thibault 6 2-3 14, Talon Taylor 0 2-2 2, Matt Pezoldt 3 0-0 6, Leif Knatterud 0 0-2 0, Kade Page 0 0-0 0, Ryan Rothing 0 0-3 0. Totals 19 12-28 52.

MANHATTAN CHRISTIAN (2-7) —Jon Orchard 2 3-8 9, Ryan Ovenell 0 0-0 0, Justin Ovenell 1 2-2 4, Nate Hill 0 0-0 0, Seth McCormack 0 5-8 5, Andy Van Dyken 3 1-2 8, Alex Potts 3 4-13 10, Luke Dyk 0 0-1 0, Matt Kredit 1 0-0 2, John Weidenaar 0 0-0 0. Totals 10 15-34 38.

Belgrade 13 17 4 18 — 52 Christian 7 11 10 10 — 38 3-point goals — Orchard 2, Van Dyken, Lemon, Hook. Total fouls — Bel 23, MC 23. Fouled out — Hirsch, Knatterud, Justin Ovenell. Technicals — none.

Biologists to talk to sportsmen's group The Skyline Sportsmen Association will hold a public meeting on Wednesday, at 7 p.m. in the War Bonnet hotel.

Guest speakers will be state Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks biologists Kurt Alt, of Region 3, and Vanna Boccadori, of Butte. Alt is to present a power point showing effects of private ranch hunting restrictions and wolf predation on the historical migration patterns of elk in Southwestern Montana. Boccadori is to speak about recent mule deer counts and progress on the Mount Haggin Wildlife Restoration Project.

Wyoming hires two new coaches to football staff CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — Wyoming football coach Dave Christensen has added two more coaches to his staff, including Montana offensive line coach Pete Kaligis.

Dan Hammerschmidt has joined the Cowboys' staff as the wide receivers coach.

Kaligis was an assistant at Montana for four seasons, including three as offensive line coach. He previously was head strength and conditioning coach at Washington.

Hammerschmidt most recently coached receivers at Rice. Before Rice, Hammerschmidt spent seven of his 12 seasons at Colorado State as the offensive coordinator under coach Sonny Lubick.

MCC basketball teams sweep Bismarck State MILES CITY — The Miles Community College basketball squads swept Bismarck State in games played Saturday night. The men's team defeated BSC 107-94 to improve to 12-6 overall and 5-1 in the Mon/Dak Conference. The Lady Pioneers battled back to beat the Lady Mystics 94-81 to move their record to 12-4 overall and 4-2 in the conference.

Sophomore Beata Bak, from Poland, scored 30 points and pulled down 20 rebounds, both game-highs to lead the Miles women.

In the men's game, sophomore Trent Fildes, from Adelaide, Australia, scored 21 points.

Guard Rochi Estes, from Anaconda, hit four-of-eight from beyond the arc, scoring 16 points.