BILLINGS, Mont- The Montana State University Billings Men's and Women's Golf team opened their spring season by hosting the fifth Annual Yellowjacket Spring Invitational. 

With winds gusting from 55-60mph, the tournament was suspended after one round of play.  MSU-Billings welcomed a field that featured eight different school including MSUB.  The men's field includes MSUB, Rocky Mountain College, South Dakota School of Mines, Montana Tech, Miles City Community College and Montana State University-Northern.  The Women's field is identical with the subtraction of Montana State-Northern and the addition of Chadron State University. 

The MSUB Men's team took first place beating out Rocky Mountain College by nine total strokes 299-308.  The MSUB Women took second as they were just edged out by RMC 329-331. 

The Yellowjacket Men were led by Gage Huft who took first place individually scoring a 73.  MSUB finished with five of the top ten finishers as well.  Brad Harrelson took second shooting a 74; Jake Hedge and Austin Westphal finished tied for fifth with a score of 76 and Marcus Drange finished tenth with a 78. "I am very pleased with the way our men played," head coach Shawn O'Brien said.  "Conditions were extreme and we stayed focus and had results which we were proud of. This is good momentum to carry into our next few tournaments."

As the second round was not played, the MSUB Women had to settle for second place as Rocky barely squeaked past led by Kyla Clancy who finished first in the Women's bracket with a score of 79.  MSUB finished with players in second, third fourth and fifth.  Katie Fish was one stroke behind Clancy finishing second with an 80, Capri Ingram and Melissa Saken finished third and fourth with scores of 81 and BreAnna Campbell placed fifth with a score of 82.         

"Our women battled to the best of their abilities," O'Brien said.   "It is disappointing not being able to finish the second round as we had many of our women playing great golf. Never the less, we needed to be a few strokes better to catch RMC. Congrats to them for playing well. We are excited to have gotten to play this week and prepare for a very important tournament next week in Monterey, CA."

"Today was a hard fought battle between every team and player," O'Brien said.  "The weather conditions were not ideal, as it was cold in the morning and very windy in the afternoon. It is very disappointing that we had to cancel the second round due to windy conditions which made the course unplayable. I want to thank Pryor Creek Golf Course for working as hard as they did all week getting the course into playing condition. Unfortunately, the weather just did not want to cooperate."

Final standings-Men - * indicates playing as an Individual 

Teams Scores

1 Montana St. Billings 299
2 Rocky Mountain Coll. 308
3 Rocky Mountain B 323
4 South Dakota Mines 334
5 Montana Tech. B 341
6 Montana Tech 343
7 Miles CC 365

Individual Finishers

1 Gage Huft MSUB 37- 36 73 +1
2 Brad Harrelson MSUB 38- 36 74 +2
Taylor Noble Rocky Mt. 34- 40 74 +2
4 Daniel Thompsett Rocky Mt. 35- 40 75 +3
5 Tyler Frich SDSM&T 37- 39 76 +4
Austin Westphal MSUB 39- 37 76 +4
Jake Hedge MSUB 37- 39 76 +4
8 Jake McKinney Miles CC 38- 39 77 +5
Cooper Simpson Rocky Mt. 39- 38 77 +5
10 Marcus Drange MSUB 41- 37 78 +6
11 Shay Ridl Rocky B 39- 40 79 +7
12 Walker Hoolehan SDSM&T 39- 41 80 +8
Brogan Papel SDSM&T 39- 41 80 +8
Brandon Meyer Rocky B 41- 39 80 +8
*Houston Bradbury MSUB 40- 40 80 +8
*Tanner Berg MSUB 41- 39 80 +8
17 *Justin Newton MT St.-No. 43- 38 81 +9
18 Fredrik Savestrand Rocky B 46- 36 82 +10
Brian Schwartzkoph Mont. Tech 38- 44 82 +10
Robert Shipp Rocky Mt. 41- 41 82 +10
Hunter Anderson Rocky B 44- 38 82 +10
*Jacob Letman MSUB 45- 37 82 +10
23 Lee Paulson MT Tech 41- 43 84 +12
*Matt Stiegel SDSM&T 46- 38 84 +12
25 Sean Ryan Mont. Tech 43- 42 85 +13
Dublin Sullivan Mont. Tech 46- 39 85 +13
Nathan Cachia Rocky B 44- 41 85 +13
Sean Ryan MT Tech 43- 42 85 +13
29 Dustin Kaste MT Tech 38- 48 86 +14
30 Alec Shull MT Tech 43- 45 88 +16
Chad Houska Miles CC 43- 45 88 +16
Jordy Donoven Rocky Mt. 40- 48 88 +16
33 Hayden Congdon Mont. Tech 43- 46 89 +17
34 Zach Maassen MT Tech 48- 43 91 +19
35 *Nate Nuorcher MT St.-No. 45- 47 92 +20
36 *Jon Crow MT St.-No. 46- 48 94 +22
37 Boyd Sinclair Miles CC 46- 51 97 +25
38 Korey Pryer SDSM&T 46- 52 98 +26
39 Doug Sayer SDSM&T 53- 46 99 +27
40 Blake Schwagler Miles CC 51- 52 103 +31