(Editor's note: Frontier Conference press release.)
HELENA — Montana Tech has won the 2023-2024 Frontier Conference Bandy Memorial All-Sports Award. This is the second consecutive season that Montana Tech has won the award and the sixth time in school history.
The Orediggers placed in the top three in seven of the eight counted sports this year to total 110 points. They won conference championships in volleyball, men’s basketball, men’s track and field, and women’s track amd field.
“Winning the Bandy Award is no easy task and is a direct reflection of the resilient spirit of our student-athletes,” Montana Tech Director of Athletics Matt Stepan said. “Our collective success this year has been a consummate team effort and we are proud to share this honor with all members of our Montana Tech family, past and present.”
Carroll College finished second in the final standings with 102.5 points after winning championships in men’s cross country, women’s cross country, and women’s basketball.
Montana Western won the football championship and used that to place third in the final standings with 78 points. Rocky Mountain scored 72.5 points to finish fourth with Providence in fifth with 69 points and MSU-Northern placing sixth with 47.5 points.
Carroll leads the Frontier with 17 Bandy All-Sports Awards, Rocky has won eight followed by Montana Tech and Montana Western with six. Former league member Lewis-Clark State has won four and MSU-Northern has won two.
The Bandy Award is presented each year to the conference school that has accumulated the most points based on its regular season finish in football, men and women's basketball, men and women's cross country, women's volleyball, and men’s and women’s outdoor track.
The conference regular season champion receives 17 points and the points decrease for each place after first with 12 points for second, 10 points for third, nine points for fourth, eight points for fifth, seven points for sixth, six points for seventh and three points for eighth.
If there is a tie in the regular season standings, the points for the place finishing are added together and divided by the number of teams that tied. An example would be if two teams tied for first they would each receive 14.5 points (17 plus 12 divided by 2 = 14.5) while the next place finisher would be awarded the third place points.
The conference features five members in all sports: Carroll College, MSU-Northern, Montana Tech, Montana Western and Rocky Mountain. Providence participates in all sports except football.
Arizona Christian, College of Idaho, Eastern Oregon and Southern Oregon are conference members in football only.
The Bandy Award was first presented after the 1982-83 season with Western Montana College (now Montana Western) winning the award.
The all-sports award is named in honor of the first commissioner of the Frontier Conference, George Bandy, his wife Cheryl Ann and their 8-year-old son Michael, whom they had adopted two weeks earlier.
The family died tragically in a boating accident in the summer of 1982 when their 14-foot sailboat overturned in high winds on Canyon Ferry Reservoir.
