Sidney’s Mel Hoffman was the top Montana finisher in yesterday’s 112th running of the Boston Marathon.  It was the third year in a row that the 44 year old Hoffman took that honor.  He finished with a time of two hours, 52 minutes, 27 seconds over the 26.2-mile course and placed 550th overall in a field of more than 25 thousand runners.  Fairview runner Kenneth Newhall finished a little over 11 minutes behind Hoffman in a time of three hours, 3 minutes and 14 seconds. 

The men’s basketball program at Dickinson State has announced it’s 2008 recruiting class and one of the incoming players is from northeast Montana.  Plentywood High’s Andrew Rickett signed his letter of intent to play for coach Ty Orton starting next season.  A 6-1 shooting guard, Rickett averaged 19 points and 4 and a half rebounds and 4 assists a game for the Wildcats.  He was named to the Class B All-State team as a senior and last year as a junior he was the MVP of the state tournament as Plentywood finished second to Huntley Project.  Orton says he’s very excited to have a player like Rickett joining his program. 

The summer fastpitch softball season is almost upon us in Sidney.  Sign up for the summer league for girls in 5th to the 12th grade will be next week…Monday (4-21) and Tuesday (4-22) from 6 to 8pm both nights at the Westside Elementary School.

If you have any questions, you can e-mail Terry Roth at urastar@midrivers.com or call 406-488-5124.

The Sidney Girls Fastpitch website is also online at www.urastarsports.com

“Outdoor Life” magazine has ranked Williston, ND number 18 of the top 200 places in the nation for the outdoorsmen to call home.

The rankings are featured in the April edition under the article titled “Paradise Found” by Andrew McKean who knows the region pretty well. He lives in Glasgow where he recently left a position with Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks to join Outdoor Life on a full-time basis.

The nationally published magazine based its search criteria by reviewing several quality of life and sporting factors within the community that included growth rate, economy, crime, distance of commute, hunting and fishing opportunities, trophy quality, gun laws, and year- round accessibility.

Each category was rated on a scale of 1 to 10 (10 being the best).

Then, all this information was put into a computer database, which ranked cities using a formula that gave slightly heavier emphasis (60-40) to the sporting opportunities than to the quality-of-life rankings.

Williston Mayor Ward Koeser says he is pleased that Williston was listed.

“We have always felt that Williston is a great place for outdoorsmen.” “Recognition in a national publication by someone outside of our community only reinforces that feeling.“

For the full list of cities go to www.outdoorlife.com. A direct link to the story is here.

Summer brings basketball camps to schools across the region. The 11th annual Hi-Line Hoops Camp is coming to Culbertson June 2nd, 3rd and 4th. It’s run by Hinsdale native and current Rocky Mountain College Men’s coach Bill Dreikosen. It’s for both boys and girls in grades 1 through high school seniors. The 1st through sixth graders will have their sessions from nine to noon while the junior high and high school players will run from 1 to 4pm. If you need more information contact Coach Dreikosen at 406-860-3133 or dreikosw@rocky.edu or Kris Dreikosen at the Culbertson School at 787-6241.

Camp registration forms are available at schools in Culbertson, Bainville,  Brockton, Medicine Lake, Froid, Fairview and at the Sidney Elementary & Middle Schools.

The racing season is almost upon us. The Williston Basin Racing Association is holding a meeting for all its members Tuesday (4-15) at 7:30PM Central. The meeting is at the MDU Hospitality Room in Williston. Memberships are now due and 2008 schedules and payouts will be available at the meeting.

Here’s Friday’s sportscast from Eagle 93.

Dave

How’s this for a recipe for disaster. Put Boston College and the University of North Dakota Sioux in a hockey arena at the Frozen Four, set the timer for 60 minutes and watch the pucks fly into the North Dakota net. For the third year in a row, BC has beaten North Dakota in the Frozen Four semifinal. Tonight (Thursday) at the Pepsi Center in Denver, Boston College coasted to a 6-1 victory. The Sioux were held scoreless until the 18:46 mark of the third period when Jake Marto notched their only goal of the game.

North Dakota ends their season at 28-11-4. Boston College will take on either Michigan or Notre Dame who are currently in overtime.

I’m almost embarrassed to say this next story comes from the great state of Montana.  But since it originates from the Flathead Valley, it’s probably safe to say that many of those participating are not true Montanans, but Californians.  Apparently the end of the season party at Whitefish Mountain Resort includes something called “Pond Skimming”.

Here’s today’s sportscast as an mp3, ready to download.