Griz set more records in ITA Regional Rankings

After returning to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in over a decade, the Big Sky champion Montana men's tennis team set a slew of new program records Wednesday as the Intercollegiate Tennis Association announced its year-end regional rankings.

As a team, Montana finished the year ranked No. 7 in Mountain Region, a new program best as the highest ranked team in the Big Sky. As more proof of UM's rise as a mid-major power in the Western U.S., it marks the Grizzlies' third appearance in the Mountain Region top 10 in the past five years, slotting in at No. 8 in 2024 and No. 9 in 2022.

For the first time ever, Montana also placed two players in the regional singles top 20, with juniors Tom Bittner ranked No. 9 (the highest individual ranking ever for UM) and Baltazar Wiger-Nordas ranked No. 20. The pair were two of just four players from the Big Sky to earn a place on the list.

Bittner earned a regional ranking for the second time in his career after slotting in at No. 10 last year. On top of his singles ranking, Wiger-Nordas doubled-up this season with he and his doubles partner Fernando Perez ranked at the No. 10 doubles pair in the region as well.

"These rankings really make me think about how the table was set for this through Coach (Kris) Nord, Jan Steenkamp being the first guy to be ranked, Victor Casadevall, Ed Pudney, and all the guys who set the standard for the program to move forward," said head coach Jason Brown, who was named Big Sky Coach of the Year for the second time earlier in the spring.

"The fact we got our highest team ranking and are the highest Big Sky team ranked means the world to me and the guys. Hopefully it's setting things up to push the program forward even more. This is a testament to everyone's hard work to get us here."

Montana set a program record for dual wins in 2025 at 19-7, winning the Big Sky Tournament Championship and punching its ticket to the NCAA Tournament for just the second time in program history.

The Griz recorded several notable wins during the season that helped land the No. 7 team ranking, including Summit League runners-up North Dakota, at regional No. 10 Air Force, defending Big Sky champion Sacramento State (twice), Saint Mary's, Grand Canyon, and regular season conference champion Northern Arizona at the league tourney.

Bittner was a unanimous first team all-conference selection in singles after a 13-5 season on court one and was named Big Sky tournament MVP after clinching UM's win over Northern Arizona in the title match in dramatic fashion over the league's regular season MVP Dani Torres of NAU. Wiger-Nordas went 14-6 in singles on court two to earn first team all-conference honors as well. Both pushed through injury to find their winning form.

"They both had great seasons at one and two, sort of carried the team at the top of the lineup. We could count on some wins up there all year, which I thought was incredible. Tommy battling through injury and 'Balty' finding his way to a lot of wins through some injury as well was great," said Brown.

Wiger-Nordas and Perez held down court one doubles for Montana for the bulk of the season, piling up a winning overall record of 9-8 together with big wins at Air Force, Gonzaga, Sac State, and Utah State throughout the season.

It's the first time ever Montana has had a doubles pair ranked at the end of the year. As an indicator of how strong the Big Sky was in doubles this season, the pair earned a regional ranking but not all-conference honors, with three other doubles pairs from the league ranked regionally as well.

"I was really excited by the doubles ranking seeing as how they didn't get any Big Sky accolades, but they played at one and the Big Sky Conference had some incredible doubles teams. There are three teams ranked ahead of us, and they should be. The fact the Big Sky Conference got four teams ranked in the top ten in our region is incredible and shows our conference is improving so much as well," Brown added.

Perez and fellow senior Chriz Zhang were the only two losses to graduation for the Grizzlies this season, with Brown expected to return the remainder of the title-winning roster.

ITA Mountain Region Top 10 Team Rankings
1: Boise State
2: Utah
3: Denver
4: New Mexico
5: BYU
6: Utah State
7: Montana
8: Northern Arizona
9: Nevada
10: Air Force

ITA Mountain Region Top 20 Singles Rankings
1: Daniel Sancho Arbizu, Denver
2: Jett Middleton, Boise State
3: Ilia Snitari, UNLV
4: Aram Noroozian, New Mexico
5: Berk Bugarikj, Utah
6: Sergi Mico Fenollar, Utah State
7: Youssef Kadiri, Nevada
8: Daniel Torres, Northern Arizona
9: Tom Bittner, Montana
10: Raffaello Papajcik, Denver
11: Mohammad Alkotop, Utah State
12: Carson Baker, Boise State
13: Wally Thayne, BYU
14: Zach Fuchs, BYU
15: Valentino De Pellegrin, Idaho State
16: Arjun Kersten, Air Force
17: Dante Carlos Teramo, Utah
18: Illia Maksymchuk UNLV
19: James Van Herzeele, Boise State
20: Baltazar Wiger-Nordas, Montana

ITA Mountain Region Top 10 Doubles Rankings
1: Wally Thayne/Zach Fuchs, BYU
2: Lucas Hammond/Youssef Kadiri, Nevada
3: Aram Noroozian/Georgio Samaha, New Mexico
4: Daniel Sancho Arbizu/Theo Coats, Denver
5: Valentino De Pellegrin/Victor Sklenka, Idaho State
6: Reid Jarvis/Dante Carlos Teramo, Utah
7: Piotr Galus/Daniel Torres, Northern Arizona
8: Jett Middleton/Carson Baker, Boise State
9: Minh Tuan Dinh Viet/Connor Kruger, Weber State
10: Fernando Perez/Baltazar Wiger-Nordas, Montana

University of Montana Athletics

Players Mentioned

Tom Bittner

Fernando Perez

Baltazar Wiger-Nordas

Related Videos