Montana
Frontier Conference notebook: Rocky Mountain College, Montana Tech, Carroll College athletes shine
MISSOULA — It was a big week for Montana Frontier Conference athletic teams. Rocky Mountain College did well in volleyball and golf; Montana Tech got strong performances in football and cross country; and Carroll College continued its hot start in women’s soccer.
Those headlines and more highlight the Frontier Conference notebook for Sept. 25.
Volleyball
Rocky Mountain College had a perfect week on the volleyball court, sweeping past crosstown rival MSU Billings in an exhibition match and Carroll College in its Frontier Conference opener last week.
Makenna Bushman and Blythe Sealey were named the conference’s attacker and setter of the week, respectively, for the Battlin’ Bears on Monday. Bushman, a junior outside hitter from Joliet, had a double-double of 13 kills and 12 digs in Rocky’s win over Carroll. She added a service ace and three blocks. Sealey, a senior setter from Roundup, tallied 35 assists, nine digs and one kill in the match.
KayLee Kopp of Montana Western was named the defensive player of the week. Kopp, from Fort Collins, Colo., had 17 digs, two blocks and seven kills in the Bulldogs’ sweep of Montana State-Northern.
Last week:
Rocky def. MSU Billings 3-0 (exhibition)
Montana Tech def. Providence 3-1
Rocky def. Carroll 3-0
Western def. Northern 3-0
Up next:
MSU Billings at Rocky, 7 p.m. Monday
Carroll at Western, 7 p.m. Wednesday
Providence at MSU-Northern, 7 p.m. Wednesday
MSU-Northern at Montana Tech, 7 p.m. Friday
Providence at Carroll, 7 p.m. Friday
Western at Rocky, 7 p.m. Friday
Rocky at Tech, 2 p.m. Saturday
Cross country
The Carroll College men’s and women’s cross country teams are both ranked in the latest NAIA Cross Country Coaches’ Top 25 Ratings, which were released on Sept. 21.
Carroll is ranked 17th in the women’s rankings and 19th in the men’s. The Rocky Mountain College women are 21st, and the Montana Tech men are 25th.
The Orediggers were the only Frontier Conference harriers to compete last week, running at The Master’s Cross Country Invitational in Santa Cruz, Calif. Tech’s men finished in sixth place and the women took seventh at the event that featured teams from both the NAIA and NCAA.
Edwin Kipainoi finished sixth overall with a time of 24 minutes, 24.2 seconds. Justin Morgan was also in the top 20 in the field of 236 runners. Morgan took 12th place with a time of 24:34.3. Kipainoi was fifth among the NAIA competitors, and Morgan was seventh. Carlin Manning took 12th overall and third among NAIA schools in the women’s race with a time of 21:36.0.
Up next:
Montana’s Frontier cross country teams are off until the Yellowjackets/Battlin’ Bears Open in Billings on Oct. 6.
Golf
Rocky Mountain College swept the team and individual titles at the Argo Invitational at the Meadowlark Country Club in Great Falls last week.
Daniel Sigurjonsson led the way for the Battlin’ Bear men, carding a three-round 6-under-par 210, including a sizzling 67 in the final round. Rocky’s Jared Smith (213 strokes) and Leon Doedtmann (215) placed second and third overall, as the Bears finished with 852 total strokes to finish 55 shots ahead of second-place Montana Tech.
Rocky’s Valentina Zuleta captured another individual win on the women’s side, finishing her two rounds with a 1-under-par 143 (73, 70). Kadence Fischer (153 strokes) and Tyla Potgieter (157) added second- and third-place finishes for Rocky, which totaled 612 shots to finish 28 strokes ahead of second-place Tech.
“Both teams played really great this week,” Rocky coach Nathan Bailey said. “I was really proud of how well we played Monday with the tough, windy conditions. Our play on Monday really separated us from the field. (Tuesday) we had some great weather and we took advantage of that. We really showed off how deep our teams are this season, especially on the men’s side. I believe this week will give us a lot of confidence going forward into the fall season.”
Up next:
The Frontier Conference golf teams will take the course at Laurel Country Club for the Beartooth Invitational on Oct. 2-3.
Football
Montana Tech defeated then-No. 7 College of Idaho last week, and the Orediggers were rewarded for their performance on Monday. Tech jumped to No. 11 in the NAIA Football Coaches’ Top 25 Rating, and had two players earn Frontier Conference player of the week honors.
The Diggers were previously ranked 15th but are now one spot ahead of College of Idaho, which slipped to 12th after the loss. Carroll College is the highest-ranked Frontier team in the poll at No. 9. It’s the Fighting Saints’ highest ranking since they were No. 9 in 2013. Montana Western and Rocky Mountain College both received votes but finished outside the top 25. The top six spots went unchanged from last week: Northwestern (Iowa), Grand View (Iowa), Morningside (Iowa), Indiana Wesleyan, Marian (Ind.) and Bethel (Tenn.). View the complete poll.
Quarterback Blake Thelen and kicker Ryan Lowry were recognized for their individual efforts in Tech’s win over C of I. Thelen, a redshirt junior from Great Falls High, was named the conference’s offensive player of the week after passing for a career-high 366 yards and two touchdowns on 18-of-28 passing. Lowry, from Pasco, Wash., was named the special teams player of the week after kicking field goals from 23, 28 and 36 yards and converting all five of his point-after tries.
Eastern Oregon’s Jason Grant was named the defensive player of the week after totaling 15 tackles and an interception against Rocky.
Last week:
Carroll 35, Arizona Christian 20
Rocky 13, Eastern Oregon 7
Tech 44, College of Idaho 35
Western 24, Southern Oregon 23
Up next:
Carroll at MSU-Northern, 1 p.m. Saturday
Rocky at College of Idaho, 1 p.m. Saturday
Tech at Southern Oregon, 2 p.m. Saturday
Arizona Christian at Southern Oregon, 2 p.m. Saturday
Soccer (Cascade Collegiate Conference)
Carroll College senior Emily Funseth continued her great start to the Cascade Collegiate Conference women’s soccer season, helping the Fighting Saints to wins over Multnomah (1-0 on Thursday) and Warner Pacific (2-0 on Friday) last week. Funseth, a forward from Great Falls CMR, was named the league’s offensive player of the week on Monday for the second consecutive week. The CCC also named the Carroll women the league’s team of the week.
Funseth found the back of the net on a penalty shot in the 69th minute in Carroll’s win over Warner Pacific. Molly Molvig gave the Saints an insurance score 20 minutes later, as Carroll improved to 6-0-1 overall and 3-0 in league play.
Providence’s Jose Vasquez, meanwhile, was named the CCC’s men’s offensive player of the week. Vasquez, a freshman forward from Acarigua, Venezuela, scored all four Providence goals in the Argos’ 4-1 victory over Multnomah on Friday.
Last week:
Men
Carroll 2, Multnomah 0
Eastern Oregon 4, Rocky 1
Providence 4, Multnomah 1
Warner Pacific 4, Carroll 1
Warner Pacific 6, Providence 0
College of Idaho 2, Rocky 0
Women
Carroll 1, Multnomah 0
Eastern Oregon 2, Rocky 0
Providence 1, Multnomah 1
Carroll 2, Warner Pacific 0
College of Idaho 3, Rocky 0
Providence 1, Warner Pacific 0
Up next:
Men
Carroll at Bushnell, 1:30 p.m. Friday
Providence at Corban, 1:30 p.m. Friday
Carroll at Corban, 1:30 p.m. Saturday
Providence at Bushnell, 1:30 p.m. Saturday
Walla Walla at Rocky, 8:30 p.m. Saturday
Women
Carroll at Bushnell, 4 p.m. Friday
Providence at Corban, 4 p.m. Friday
Carroll at Corban, 4 p.m. Saturday
Providence at Bushnell, 4 p.m. Saturday
A Montana man found slain in his tent this month welcomed the suspect in his killing, a stranger, to his campsite and offered him a beer, the Gallatin County sheriff said Thursday.
Daren Christopher Abbey, 41, was arrested this week and charged with deliberate homicide in the killing of Dustin Kjersem, 35, whose body was found in his tent near Big Sky on Oct. 12, officials said.
It was a “chance encounter” at the campsite on the night of Oct. 10, and Abbey did not know Kjersem, Sheriff Dan Springer said at a news conference.
Abbey had planned to camp at the site, but when he arrived that night he found Kjersem was already there, with a wall tent, beds and a stove, Springer said.
Abbey in a confession to detectives, “stated Dustin welcomed him to the campsite and offered him a beer,” Springer said.
“At some point, this individual struck Dustin Kjersem with a piece of solid wood, stabbed him in the neck with a screwdriver and ultimately hit him with the ax,” Springer said. “The motives of this attack are still unknown.”
The state crime lab matched DNA from a beer can found in the tent to Abbey, Springer said.
Abbey was arrested Saturday in Butte, around 80 miles northwest of Big Sky. He was interviewed by sheriff’s detectives and Montana Justice Department investigators Tuesday and confessed to the killing, Springer said.
Kjersem planned to spend the weekend at the campsite with his girlfriend. He set up the camp on Oct. 10, a Thursday, and he planned to pick his girlfriend up from work the next night, Springer said.
Kjersem never arrived. The girlfriend and a friend drove to the campsite on Oct. 12, a Saturday, and found Kjersem dead in the tent, Springer said.
Kjersem’s injuries were such that the person who reported discovering his body suspected he had been attacked by a bear, the sheriff’s office has said. An autopsy confirmed it was homicide, not an animal attack.
Abbey had been living in a couple of different areas but most recently had a residence in Basin, Montana, a small community in the mountains northeast of Butte, Springer said. He had been employed in the Big Sky area at various times, Springer said.
Abbey was arrested on a probation violation in Butte but is charged with deliberate homicide in Kjersem’s death, the sheriff’s office said.
State Corrections Department records show Abbey was on conditional release after a prison sentence for a 2020 repeat driving under the influence case.
Abbey was being held in custody Thursday night without bond, jail records show. It was not immediately clear whether he had an attorney who could speak on his behalf.
The investigation could take months more. Springer said detectives will work to put together more pieces of what occurred, including what motive Abbey might have had.
“We have a bit of his story, but we don’t really know what the true story is,” Springer said. “We have a story — we just don’t know if it’s accurate.”
Springer said that after he killed Kjersem, Abbey removed items he may have touched or which could connect him to the crime, including a cooler and the ax. He returned the next night and took more items, Springer said.
The sheriff’s office previously said an ax, a Yeti cooler, a shotgun and a revolver were missing from the campsite.
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JORDAN – A 15-year-old girl was killed and a 16-year-old boy was injured in a one-vehicle crash near Jordan.
The Montana Highway Patrol reports the crash happened Wednesday shortly before 7 p.m. on Highway 200 at mile marker 178.
The patrol said the girl was driving a Chevrolet Suburban westbound on the highway when the vehicle went off the right side of the road and overturned. The patrol said the girl was not wearing a seatbelt and was ejected. She died at the scene.
The extent of the boy’s injuries was not released, but he was taken to an area medical facility. Both teens are from Sand Springs.
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