Top sports moments of 2016
The Whitefish womens tennis team following their state championship.
High-level performances by Whitefish’s women athletes headline 2016’s sports highlights.
Maggie Voisin had a productive return to competition early in the year after injuries in 2014 forced a break from the national spotlight. In January Voisin took fourth in ski slopestyle at the Winter X Games in Aspen, followed by second in a slopestyle Olympic test event in South Korea in February. Voisin won bronze in the women’s skiing slopestyle World Cup finale in March.
On Dec. 13 Voisin took second overall at the Dew Tour Slopestyle competition in Breckenridge Ski Resort, taking first in the jib section and third in the jumps section of the competition.
Senior soccer player Haley Nicholson capped off her excellent career at Whitefish High School with her 99th goal against Belgrade in early October. She is one of the top scoring female soccer players in the state. Nicholson will return to the pitch next year at Mount Royal University in Calgary, Alberta.
“I’ve had a dream since fifth grade to play division one soccer and that’s been my goal ever since, so I’ve been working as hard as I could to get as many opportunities as possible,” she said. “I thought it would be fun to go on an adventure, so I chose Canada.”
Whitefish athletics had a strong showing in state competitions in 2016.
The girls tennis team in the spring earned its first State A championship since 2004. The girls tennis doubles of Katie Fyall and Anna Peterson and Heather Luedke and Hannah Madsen fought it out in the title game in May, with Fyall and Peterson taking the gold.
Luke May, a 2016 Whitefish High graduate, capped off his outstanding Bulldog career last spring with his third straight state javelin title and the 2016 Don Schwenke Most Outstanding Male Athlete award. May now throws javelin for the University of Minnesota.
In the fall, the Whitefish womens golf team, led by Gracie Young, Holly Hileman and Haley Hileman, and cross country team, led by Ella Greenberg, Braya Hobson and Joesphine Vardell, took second place at their state meets as well. The Lady Bulldogs volleyball team also made a second straight trip to the state tournament in Bozeman after head coach Jackie Fuller returned to head the team in 2015.
The year wasn’t without its coaching changes. Bill Kahle took over the Whitefish golf program after coach Tim Olson resigned in June. Former girls basketball coach Sean Duff returned to the court, this time taking the reins of the boys team, and Scott Murray will head the Glacier Twins A team in the spring.