Blue Ponies ready to race

When the high school swimming season begins Saturday at the Havre Community Pool, there was something noticeably different about the Havre High boys and girls swim teams as they race into a new season.

For the first time in two decades, legendary head coach Chris Inman isn't there … at least not coaching the Blue Ponies.

After one of the most successful runs in MHSA history, Inman retired last spring, and is replaced by new head coach Jill Cammon. Cammon moved to Havre four years ago and has been coaching the Lions Swim Team for the last year. Now Cammon moves into the role as HHS head coach, and she takes over a relatively young and inexperienced Blue Pony program, which starts the season with Saturday’s Havre Invitational.

And being inexperienced and young is why Cammon says, at the beginning, and for much of the season, her boys and girls teams are working on skill and technique.

"Overall, because we have pretty young teams, the goal right away is to just develop the kids as swimmers," Cammon said. "So that we can be more competitive in years to come. That's not to say we won't be competitive this season. We have some very good swimmers in different areas, but we have so many young swimmer, and new swimmers, that we really need to work hard on their swimming skills right now."

Both Blue Pony teams finished behind Billings Central at the Class A state meet last February, and the Rams are expected to once again be the premier swimming power in Montana this winter.

Meanwhile, the HHS girls, while still young, do return a solid core group of swimmers, and the Ponies will also have good depth with 18 girls on the roster.

Leading the Pony girls this season will be Hannah Pepprock, Mackenna Barkus, Morgan Jappe, Leiza Reighard, Jackie Martin, Alara Vogel and Megan Smith, all of whom have a wealth of experience as varsity swimmers. Also expected to contribute right away are the likes of sophomores Lita Cammon and Rachel David, as well as Chinook's Aubri McCann, along with junior Jayden Korb.

Coach Cammon also has a host of other swimmers in which she will help develop this season, including sisters Megan and Sarah Malone, Adrian Miller, Hailee Kilgore, Carleigh Rennick, Hannah Dean and Jaryn Winchell.

"We don't have a lot of returning seniors on the girls team, but we have a lot of strong returning swimmers," Cammon said. "I think we have a lot of depth on the girls team, and hopefully, we can find the right places for different girls and put together some strong relay teams, and they can have a good season.

"And while we don't have a big senior class," she added, "we have a lot of young swimmers who are ready to take off and show us what they've got this season, and I'm excited about that."

The HHS boys team doesn't have the numbers the girls have, as graduation hit a  talented Blue Pony squad hard last spring. Still, Cammon is excited about the boys that are out, led by junior Ben Siegel.

"The interesting part about the boys team is, we only have one returning boy who swam last year," she said. "Ben Siegel is a really strong swimmer, especially in the freestyle races. But we're going to have him be an all-around swimmer this year because we need him to be.

"Our boys team will be very young this season," she added. "But we have kids who are working very hard right now."

Joining Siegel on the HHS squad will be Sundance Lodge and senior exchange student Tomasso Perrone. After that, the Ponies will be young and new, with Clayton Twomble, Shandon Oberquell, Jimmy May, Logan Gardner, Kai Duque, Zach Barnes and Kyle Duitsman rounding out the roster.

But even though the Ponies are young in the pool this season, and will compete against tough competition like Great Falls High and CMR, as well as Billings Central and Hardin all season long, Cammon is excited about the team, and excited to see what all her swimmers can do this winter.

"I'm optimistic," she said. "But we understand we have a lot of really new swimmers, and we're a young team so it's going to take time to develop. 

"But the kids are working really hard and they are excited," she added. "We want to make sure we have a good season for the seniors and our goal is just to continue to develop as the season goes along."

As for Saturday’s meet, which will feature Class AA powers CMR and Great Falls High as well as Bigfork, which is in its first year of high school swimming, Cammon wants her Ponies to do well, but at the same time, use it as a stepping stone for the rest of the season and beyond.

“We want the kids to try and swim as many events as possible in this meet,” Cammon said. “Then we can kind of get a better idea of where we’re at and what we need to work on going forward. This will be a good opportunity for all of our swimmers to swim a lot of different events and gain some experience.”

The Pony swim teams start their season at home, as they host the 2013 Havre Invitational Saturday at the Havre Community Pool. Races start at 12:30 p.m.