Havre harriers race in big Missoula meet

With each and every race the Havre High cross country teams run in this season, it appears that it grows stronger and stronger.

That is true for both the boys and girls teams. And after an impressive outing at home, the Central A Blue Ponies hope to continue that progression through another weekend filled with a very talented pool of runners. Saturday the Ponies will be in Missoula for the Mountain West meet.

This will be one of the biggest, if not the biggest meet the Ponies travel to all season long. The Mountain West is known for its size, but also the talent it attracts from all over Montana, Washington and Idaho. Last year nearly 50 teams made the trip, and the number shouldn't be too far off of that again. But once again, the Ponies will focus their attention on the Southwest and Northwest A squads, teams they will see at state, but don't often get to see during the regular season.

For the athletes leading the Pony teams, this will be a great measuring stick for the remainder of the season. And for the younger athletes, this weekend is going to be a major wake up call. With the endless talent and countless teams, runners either find out where they are and get an idea of their state potential, or get a great look at what they can be in upcoming years if they keep shaving valuable seconds off their times.

The HHS boys have been steadily finding their way, and have been led by Marc Klimas, Elijah David, Sundance Lodge, Dylan Stewart, Derek VanDessel and Nick Rhines. Each runner has turned in very good times at one time or another, and continually get better each week. But the story has been the same each weekend, with Head coach Kyle Fisher still needing each runner to turn in a great time, as well as getting the pack time faster, and getting new and young runners to continue step up and battle for a varsity spot.

On the girls side of things, the Ponies have had a steady varsity pack turning a lot of heads. The HHS girls are coming off of a No. 1 finish at the Havre Invite last weekend, and did so in impressive fashion. HHS will be facing much tougher runners this time around, but it is hard not to expect Katie Christianson, Jess Wiken, Trisha Kinsella, Morgan Mazurkiewicz, Larissa Price, Kiana Robertson, and Mckenna Barkus not to push the girls team into a position to turn some heads yet again.

Saturday the HHS cross country teams will compete in Missoula at the Mountain West meet.