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Warm up the bus: Thompson Falls, Westby-Grenora face trips over 600 miles

Westby-Grenora
Posted at 9:47 PM, Nov 04, 2019
and last updated 2019-11-05 12:56:55-05

GRENORA, N.D. – The first round of the high school football playoffs saw only one team, Baker, travel over 500 miles for a postseason game.

The second round has four teams eclipsing the 500-mile mark.

Thompson Falls and Westby-Grenora have the longest trips. The Blue Hawks defeated Twin Bridges 55-20 at home in the first round of the 8-Man playoffs, and now head 655 miles east to face top-ranked and undefeated Fairview.

The Westby-Grenora Thunder are already well-traveled this postseason, driving 455 miles in the first round to hand Power-Dutton-Brady a 50-0 loss in the 6-Man playoffs.

Their reward?

A 645-mile one-way trip out west to face undefeated Hot Springs. That’s a combined 1,100 miles of driving in the first two rounds for the Thunder, or 2,200 miles if we’re including the return trip. Minneapolis, Minn. is closer to Westby-Grenora than Hot Springs.

Heck, depending what route the teams travel, the Blue Hawks and Thunder could meet in the middle somewhere along the Hi-Line for lunch and exchange stories from the road.

Across all classes, 20 teams will travel over 6,400 combined one-way miles in the second round of the playoffs. Over that same distance - you could drive from Portland, Ore. to Miami, Fla. -- and back again.

If we include the mileage from the return trips, you could drive from Billings to the Panama Canal, back to Billings and back to the canal.

Class A teams will travel the most miles this weekend, with an average trip length of 435 miles and six hours, 35 minutes of travel time.

Below is a breakdown of every road trip in the second round round of the high school football playoffs separated by Classification. All distances and times calculated by Google Maps.

CLASS AA

GAME

DISTANCE

TIME

Kalispell Glacier at Butte

225 mi

3 hours, 45 mins

Helena Capital at Billings West

239 mi

3 hour, 35 mins

Billings Senior at Missoula Sentinel

345 mi

4 hours, 59 mins

Helena at Bozeman

98 mi

1 hour, 38 mins

AVERAGE

227 mi

3 hours, 29 mins

CLASS A

GAME

DISTANCE

TIME

Frenchtown at Miles City

502 mi

7 hours, 9 mins

Billings Central at Hamilton

389 mi

5 hours, 52 mins

Havre at Dillon

331 mi

5 hours, 15 mins

Libby at Laurel

518 mi

8 hours, 2 mins

AVERAGE

435 mi

6 hours, 35 mins

CLASS B

GAME

DISTANCE

TIME

Florence-Carlton at Fairfield

164 mi

2 hours, 46 mins

Missoula Loyola at Manhattan

212 mi

3 hours, 33 mins

Columbus at Eureka

474 mi

7 hours, 22 mins

Malta at Red Lodge

270 mi

4 hours, 18 mins

AVERAGE

280 mi

4 hours, 30 mins

8-MAN

GAME

DISTANCE

TIME

Thompson Falls at Fairview

655 mi

10 hours, 40 mins

Park City at Fort Benton

236 mi

3 hours, 42 mins

Belt at Alberton-Superior

245 mi

4 hours, 2 mins

Flint Creek at Great Falls Central

163 mi

2 hours, 49 mins

AVERAGE

325 mi

5 hours, 18 mins

6-MAN

GAME

DISTANCE

TIME

Westby-Grenora at Hot Springs

645 mi

10 hours, 33 mins

Wibaux at Shields Valley

381 mi

5 hours, 32 mins

Bridger at Jordan

218 mi

3 hours, 43 mins

Roy-Winifred at Big Sandy

109 mi

2 hours, 6 mins

AVERAGE

339 mi

5 hours, 29 mins