By Tiffany L. Rehbein
The Havre High School cross country team travels to Lewistown Saturday to take part in the Fergus Invitational.
Last year, six Blue Ponies set personal-best times and two this year have beat those marks.
Thats a good sign that we set personal-best times up there, said first-year head coach Kim Ray.
Team leader junior Jennie Peterson ran a 21:45 last year at Lewistown. She set a career-best 19:16 at Glasgow two weeks ago, good for a first place. She also placed first three weeks ago at the Belgrade Invitational in 21:28.
Last week, she led the Havre team with a 14th place finish at the Mountain West Classic at Missoula. She ran the three-mile course in 19:29.
Junior Erin Lynch broke her old mark last week at Missoula. She ran a career-best 21:49. Last year at Lewistown, she clocked in at 21:58.
Senior Jen Dibblee has set back-to-back career-best marks, her most recent came at Missoula where she clocked in at 20:29 and finished 43rd overall.
Dibblee finished second at Glasgow, where the Havre team won the invitational.
The competition at centrally-located Lewistown will be similar to that at the Belgrade Invite. Class A, as well as B and C schools, have been invited.
Last year, seven schools competed.
Havre will be looking to finish in the top spot, competing well with Lewistown and other top returning schools from state last year.
Fergus High School took first place at state last year and Havre looks to compete well with them.
Anytime you see Lewistown, youre going to see tough competition, said Ray. Its nice to see them more than just divisionals and state.
Peterson, Dibblee, up-and-coming freshman Jenna Baltrusch, and juniors Jillian Brough, Nikki Grant and Carly Toldness round out the roster for the Ponies.
Brough clocked a season-best 21:50 last weekend.
The course, somewhat hilly, might be snow-covered, so the girls should be prepared, Ray said.
The junior high will run at 10:30, junior varsity at 11:10 and varsity at 12:10.
Weve had a really good week of practice and were ready to have a meet again, Ray said.
