Rachel Van Blaricom is well known to area basketball fans, and with good reason. She was a four-year starter for the Panthers, earning all-state honors three times and ending her high school career as the school’s leading scorer. In 2022, she led the squad to its first appearance in the Class B state tournament in over a quarter-century.
Today, the 5’9” guard is a red-shirt junior at Montana Tech. She played two years at Montana State Northern in Havre, starting 17 games in her sophomore year for the Skylights and averaging 4.8 points and 3.2 rebounds. She then transferred to Tech, for an academic program and to be closer to family. Because she switched schools within the Frontier Conference, she was required to take last year off from competition.
Now, finally, Van Blaricom is back on the court. Along with her trademark tenacious defense, she has averaged 5.1 points and 2.7 rebounds in eight games with the Diggers, who were ranked 13th in the most recent National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) poll.
