The final day of the Class A boys state tennis tournament came down to a battle of Bulldogs on Saturday.
Tied in points after the first two days of the event, Hardin and Whitefish went head-to-head in singles and doubles finals, with the Bulldogs in green coming out on top on the final day, which was played indoors at Big Sky Pickleball and Tennis Center in Billings.
After getting bageled in the first set, Whitefish’s Aaron Anderson and Marcus Mercer rallied to take home the doubles title 0-6, 6-3, 6-1 over the homestanding William Noteboom and Adrian Taganahan of Hardin.
Both doubles finalists survived tough semifinal matches to get there. Noteboom and Taganahan needed three sets to get past Teague McElwee and Marcus Lucas of Polson, while Anderson and Mercer rallied to defeat defending champions Max Spangler and Carter Chagnon of Havre after dropping the first set.
In the boys singles final, Whitefish’s Jack Oehlerich defeated Hardin’s Wesley Walks in straight sets 6-2, 6-2 to claim the state title.
Walks and Oehlerich both needed a third-set tiebreak win to even get to the final. Walks survived Owen Erickson of Whitefish in the second round, while Oehlerich’s escape came in the semifinals against Dillon’s Jack Robertson.
Though the two Bulldogs teams gobbled up the points, the two head-to-head finals wins helped vault Whitefish to its second consecutive boys team title.
The Whitefish girls joined the Bulldogs boys as state champs, comfortably winning their first team title since 2019.
The doubles team of Camry Kelch and Allie Shors helped pave the way by beating Polson’s Greta Lund and Hinkley Moss 6-3, 6-1 in the final.
Hamilton’s Ciara Hanley repeated as girls singles champion, beating Miles City’s Ramsey Pryor 6-4, 6-3. Neither player had dropped a tournament set in reaching the final.
