A look back at the 2018 Montana Senior Olympics held in Polson

Special to the Journal

By Alan Sorensen

These summer games began, not with fireworks and a torch lighting, but with putting and driving competitions among people from 50 years of age to 110 at 10 a.m. Thursday, June 14. Polson Bay Golf Course hosted the event, which concluded with an 18-hole tournament.

The Senior Olympics specific pickleball play began across town at the same time on the Linderman School tennis courts with the men's and women's competitions. It concluded Friday morning with a mixed doubles tourney.

At 4 p.m. Thursday, the 1,000- and 1,500-meter racewalking events were held at the Ronan High School track. The 2,000- and 5,000-meter walking races were held the next morning at 9 a.m. on the track.

At 6 p.m. that evening, 17 people toed the line in a Ronan city park behind Glacier Bank for the start of 5- and 10-kilometer runs.

Senior Olympians then shared in a pasta feed beginning at 7 p.m. at the Polson Elks Club.

Friday's events included horseshoes, bowling and the first of two days of cycling and swimming. Table tennis and basketball competitions were held Saturday at the Joe McDonald Sports Center on the campus of Salish Kootenai College in Pablo. Archers let fly at the Polson Sports Complex on Saturday, as well.

For the second year in a row, badminton was the one sport not held in the host community.

Only eight badminton players, all from Bozeman, signed up last year, so organizers gave them the option of playing in Bozeman or making the 271-mile trip to the southern tip of Flathead Lake. They overwhelming voted for Bozeman, according to state games director Kay Newman.

"This year, they requested to again have the badminton in Bozeman, as they thought they could bring in a few more players who were unable to travel to Polson, but could play in Bozeman," Newman said. "We agreed to do that, and they did increase their numbers in 2018. No one questioned this decision, so that could mean there was no one else who would have entered had the sport been conducted in Polson or it means that no one complained."

The birdy-batters competed in five categories and as many age groups, which ensured that each would qualified for the NSO in multiple badminton categories.

Newman also announced her retirement following her many years of service to the state's senior athletes. Annie Petschauer of Missoula Parks & Recreation is taking over the position.

The annual banquet Friday evening featured keynote speaker Michael Cooper, Los Angeles Laker legend and starting member of five NBA champion teams along with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Magic Johnson. None other than Larry Bird dubbed Cooper the best defender he'd ever faced. Cooper is now an AARP card-carrying senior citizen himself and a successful collegiate and professional coach. He said has run several basketball camps in the Lake County area and talked of his long-standing love affair with Montana. He gave credit to the Senior Olympians for continuing to stay active and pursuing their interests.

Also giving an inspiring address was Joe McDonald, head basketball and track at Northern Montana College coach my freshman year. He left Havre to help establish SKC, where he ultimately served 29 years as the college president. In his three years at Northern, McDonald prided himself on building quality teams with Montana players. His freshman recruits among my classmates were Carl Kipp of Browning, Howard Bauma of Conrad, Ken Larson of Cut Bank, Don Schwenke of Whitefish.

His basketball teams included future NMC hall-of-famers Steve Johnstone of Cut Bank, Bob Parsley of Wolf Point, Jim Kravik of Havre, Bob Lanning of Big Sandy and Larry Schwenke of Whitefish.

Walk-ons on that year's JV squad included Harlem's Neil Adams and Butch Johnson, a football scholarship athlete and fellow track man.

McDonald's speech focused on the history of the Flathead Reservation and Lake County and the great working relationship between the tribes and the county. Of the 24,000 county residents, 11,000 are tribal members, and many tribal services are located in the county seat of Polson.

The 85-year-old McDonald, who appears little changed from his coaching years, shared Cooper's enthusiasm for the senior athletes' exploits and their successes.

Every competitor in each state's Senior Olympics event this year who placed third or better in his or her age group or met minimum qualifying standards earned the right to compete at the National Senior Olympics slated for June 14-25, 2019, in Albuquerque, N.M. The competition isn't limited to residents of the sponsoring state, though.

Since 2018 is a qualifying year for the national games, senior athletes from across the country and Canada arrived in Lake County for a chance to shine. States represented were South Dakota, Wyoming, Idaho, Oregon, Colorado, Utah, California, Arizona, Texas, Florida, Minnesota, North Carolina, Missouri, Indiana, Nevada and North Dakota, along with residents of three Alberta cities: Brooks, Calgary and Edmonton.

And the effort paid off, with nearly every athlete qualifying in his and her events and age groups with the exception of pickleball, where places far exceeded the first three, going as deep as 9 and 10 places in most age and gender categories.

Some of the more interesting stories I came across during my three days involved track and field, road racing and swimming athletes.

Every one of the 14 men and two women road racers competing in their respective age groups qualified for the National Senior Olympics in Albuquerque. Because of the nature of road races, each runner is now invited to enter either or both of the races at nationals next summer.

Another unique story belongs to diehard Senior Olympian Peggy Birkenbuel, a native of Dillon and a resident of Fairbanks, Alaska, for the last 20 years. She has competed in Senior Olympics throughout the United States, including the Gulf Coast, New England, Southern Atlantic Coast, Mountain States, West Coast, and several times each in Alaska and Montana. She was among the dozens of out-of-staters vying along side Montana residents for medals and the chance to qualify for the 2019 National Senior Games slated for Albuquerque, N.M., June 14-25.

As the last events of the 2018 Montana Senior Olympics track and field meet at Ronan High School wound down, the 79-year-old Alaskan asked if anyone could give her a ride to Kalispell. Having finished dead last in each of my six events, I was in a hurry to scurry, but acquiesced to her request. To help her along, I volunteered to load her gear into my pickup.

I struggled to heft her red backpack, grabbed her black carry-on bag and her javelin. Once on the road, she explained her backpack was heavy because it contained the tools of her events: shot, discus and horse shoes. She had run into a problem with TSA officials in Fairbanks, who wanted to know what horseshoes were and what she planned to do with them. In taking the shoes from their box, the agents broke the box and were unable to get them back in. As a result, the items no longer fit comfortably in her bag.

That was just the beginning of her ordeal.

The reason she needed a ride back to Glacier Park International Airport in Kalispell was because the car rental agency where she'd placed a deposit on a reservation had rented her "reserved" car to someone else. Unable to find a vehicle at any of the rental shops, she resorted to a cab to get her to Polson for the three-day event -- at a cost of about $175.

Birkenbuel won gold in horseshoes, 1000 meter race walk and softball throw, and silver in 100- and 50-meter sprints, javelin, long jump, standing long jump and shot put.

Brian Dinsmore of Eureka was another compelling story. Competing in the 55- to 59-year-old bracket, he demonstrated a high level of preparedness and a willingness to run from venue to venue in his quest for gold. The 58-year-old accumulated 10 gold and four silver medals in his 14 running and field events -- every event offered this year in track and field.

Joe Apple of Kalispell, a multiple event entrant in my age bracket, was unable to compete in three of his specialties: the 80- and 100-meter hurdles and pole vault. Since he was the only entrant among all the various age group competitors, organizers decided to cancel those three events. That didn't stop Joe, who has gone head to head with me in five events over the years, from accumulating his share of hardware. While scurrying between the high jump and discus venues, he missed the call for the 400-meter dash, but still managed to compete in eight of the 12 events for which he paid his $4 fees.

Another surprise came from this side of the mountains. While two Sunburst, one Fort Benton and numerous Great Falls athletes, competed, only one other true Hi-Line resident, albeit a transplant, entered the fray.

Dr. Terry Hankins of Havre won several gold medals in swimming: 500-meter freestyle in 6:19, 50-yard free in 26.8, and 400-yard individual medley in 5:37.4. He now holds the records in all three events for 55- to 59-year-olds, having shattered both existing freestyle records with room to spare.

Hankins lopped more than nine seconds off the old record of 36.04 in the sprint and more than 2 minutes and 13 seconds off the 500-yard freestyle record of 7:50.62, and established a nearly unbeatable record in the IM.

Hankins also holds the 50-54 record for the 400 IM, which he set last year with a time of 5:35.6.

Other swimmers of note included 90-year-old Flora L. Wong and 94-year-old Charlotte Sanddal, both of Helena. The two nonagenarians took to the pool with a vengeance, competing and winning gold in five races each. The races in which they went head to head were the 100 backstroke, 100 IM, and 200 freestyle. Wong also swam the 50 and 100 freestyle, while Sanddal wrapped up wins in the 100 and 200 breaststroke.

Havre native and current Mesa, Ariz., resident Ardy McLeod, daughter of former Havre mayor Pete Hamilton, also hit the water. She qualified for nationals in the 80-84 age bracket version of the 50- and 100-yard breaststroke, 100 butterfly, and 100 and 200 IM.

I enjoyed a pleasant conversation with McLeod over a continental breakfast at Port Polson Inn and was reminded of her husband, one of my sister's classmates. Jim McLeod, who passed away in August 2013, was an all-state running back for the 1955 state champion Blue Ponies, a key member of an MSU Bobcat's 1956 national championship team, and an All-American honorable mention as both a running back and defensive back.

Ironically, Ardy Hamilton was a UM Grizzly cheerleader before reconnecting with her high school sweetheart. At the conclusion of her sophomore year, Hamilton transferred to MSU and the couple ultimately married, with Jim's college teammate and roommate, Sonny Holland, serving as best man.

Douglas "Terry" Hughmanick, a San Jose, California, attorney, was among my first acquaintances, as we prepared for Thursday evening's 10K road race in downtown Ronan. Hughmanick and his wife, Kristin, have a summer home in Polson. The couple said they took time after last summer's Senior Olympics in Lake County to visit Havre. They said they particularly enjoyed touring Havre Beneath the Streets and other local sites and Fort Benton and its River Walk. It turned out that Kristin's grandparents, the Loves, had owned a drug store in Havre prior to World War II.

How'd I do at the Games? I take no pride in admitting that I finished dead last in all six of my events, including a nearly 19-minute loss to my age group's gold medalist in the 6.2-mile road race. This is Montana, though, and despite my poor showing and the large out-of-state contingent, I still managed to qualify for six events at next summer's national meet.

For those interested in a little friendly competition, there is still time to sign up for most of the 47 sports planned for this summer's Big Sky State Games set in Billings on July 20-22. Top finishers in Billings qualify for the National State Games, too. As a result expect to meet a lot of out-of-staters there, too.

Missoula will host next summer's Montana Senior Olympics. The full schedule of events will be announced later. Winter Senior Olympics are limited to hockey, which is held around the first of April each year.

Now would be a good time for athletes to choose their sports and begin to train and practice for the 2019 version of the senior games.

For more information, visit MSO's new website at http://montana.fusesport.com/