MISSOULA – The Class AA and B-C state tennis tournaments were held earlier this week and some local kids came away with titles. For this week’s youth sports spotlight, we honor the dominant performance from the Missoula Hellgate and Bigfork athletes.
In the State AA tournament, it was Hellgate’s duo of Hannah Worden and Olivia Panarella that took on Billings Senior in the doubles championship. The Worden and Panarella breezed through the finals, winning in straight sets, and said they have had their sites on winning the state title since the beginning of the season.
“Going into it every day I told Olivia I want to win. I don’t want to lose, I hate the feeling of losing. Going into every game and every match we just went all for it and we just wanted to win. It’s pretty simple, we just wanted to win,” said Worden.
And in the B-C tennis championships, Bigfork had a great showing. In the girls singles, Ellie Berreth took home the title, winning in straight sets. In the boys doubles it was the Reichenbach twins, Colten and Clayton, who took home the title.
Each athlete told MTN Sports where their focus was as they chased their championships.
“My dad and my family call me the junkyard dog because I just get everything back. Just getting everything back is what I do. My strokes might not be the prettiest, but it gets over the net and it gets in and that’s what matters,” said Berreth.
“(Being) twins we know where we’re supposed to be on the court. We can back each other up,” said Colten Reichenbach.
