Blue Ponies ready to run in 2014

The 2013 season was a successful one for the Havre High School cross country teams. The HHS girls won the Central A Divisional meet and finished fourth in the Class A State cross country meet. The boys team also competed well at state with a 13th-place finish.

Now the Ponies will look to build on that success, and with a number of runners returning for the 2014 season there is a chance that this season will be even better.

"I think we will do very well," HHS head coach Darci Heninger said. "We have four of our runners back from our girls that went to divisionals and state, and I think that if they keep working hard, they have a chance to place high again this year. It just really depends on how bad they want it."

"The boys also have a chance to do well at state this year," She added. "All our boys ... ran at state last year and they already have really good pack times. They are all really close so they rotate places. One week one person will run first, then the next week it will be another runner. But the competition is very difficult for the boys, there are a lot great runners out there and a lot of natural talent, so they will need to work really hard if they want to place at state."

The Pony girls bring back a veteran unit, and with the return of Morgan Mazurkiewicz, Tori Mazurkiewicz, Rachel David and Emily Brurud Havre should be a strong pack. Morgan Mazurkiewicz is the top returning runner among the girls team and finished 25th at state, higher than any other individual runner returning for the Ponies this season.

David also had a solid finish at state coming in 26th place. Brurud also finished in 98th place for the Pony girls.

"Morgan and Rachel both did really well at state last year and I think they can place very high at state this year," Heninger said. "Morgan is very competitive and she is good at everything she does. Rachel is the same way and she improved so much last season and is doing awesome so far in practice."

Other girls that will contend for varsity spots are Meggie Zook, Kinnah Kinsella, Brooke Lavalley, Rainey Stoner, Alara Vogel, Marca Herron, Lainee Van Voast, Megan Alexander, Rachel Majeres, Maya Reed and Caitlyn Acuff.

"Our girls just need to keep working hard, it will really depend on that," Heninger said. "Hopefully they can get a little bit of tighter pack time and they need to work on their endurance but it's exciting to have so many good runners back from last season."

Leading the Blue Pony boys into the 2014 season will be returning varsity runners Brandon Robertson, Brock Ross, Cameron Knapton, Dylan Stewart and Ethan Smith.

Robertson had the best finish at state coming in 47th place. Ross had the second-best time last year, finishing in 57th, while Stewart, Smith and Knapton finished 92nd, 112th and 124th, respectively.

Other runners that will contend for spots on the varsity team include Sundance Lodge, Chris Steinmetz, Ryan Stewart, Austin Jones, Bakit Kilgore and Jaime Lieberg.

"I think a lot of the boys could place well at state if they work really hard," Heninger said. "Brandon, Brock and Dylan all have a chance to place really well at state. They just need to keep working hard at every practice and every meet to continue to improve their time every week."

Even though the Ponies have a number of runners returning, the varsity team will not be set until after the first meet of the season which is Friday at Cut Bank. Then, after the varsity roster is finalized, Havre will travel to Missoula to compete in the prestigious Mountain West Invitational Sept. 20, which will give the Ponies a good idea of how they stack up against top competition. The only home meet of the season will take place Oct. 4. when the Ponies host the Havre Invitational.

"We do things a little different than most teams," Heninger said. "We use the Cut Bank meet to determine our varsity teams. From there it will be just be about working hard every week to improve our times and getting better every week."

The Ponies take the first step in their journey this Friday when they compete in the Cut Bank Time Trials.