Havre Invite will be fun for HHS harriers

With just a few weeks to go before the end of their season, the Havre High cross country teams will get to run in front of their hometown fans for the first time this season as part of HHS homecoming weekend.

The Blue Ponies, who have traveled far and wide across the state of Montana this season, will finally get to be the host team this weekend as 17 other schools from different classifications will come to compete in the Havre Invitational, which will be held on the campus of Montana State University-Northern.

"We are more comfortable running at home," HHS head coach Darci Heninger said. "It's something that we are used to and we get so much support, so I feel we always do better when we are at home, 'cause we are more comfortable and know the course so well that we know when we need to peak."

Neither team is coming off a great performance as each finished sixth at the Lewistown Invitational a week ago. But, as the Ponies prepare for the home stretch, Heninger is hoping that the teams can kick it into high gear.

"We are actually a little behind of where we are normally at right now," Heninger said. "But our home meet should be our peak. I think the team will be pumped up and hopefully we can have our best times of the season. If we can do that, it will kind of get us where we need to be getting ready for divisionals and state, so we should run our best times this week."

"We should do well because we run this course so often," She added. "But it is a tough course, and you are going to be get a little tired because there are so many hills on the course. But any course we run has hills, so it shouldn't be that much different."

The Havre girls will be led in their home meet by veteran runners Morgan Mazurkiewicz and Rachel David, who each have a slew of Top 10 finishes this season and will set the pace for the Pony girls.

The remainder of the varsity runners for Havre this week will include Tori Mazurkewicz, Rainey Stoner, Meggie Zook, Marca Herron and Maya Reed.

"Hopefully Morgan can get running really well again. She has been off a bit the last couple of weeks," Heninger said. "But if we can get running well along with Rachel, maybe we can get our pack time down a bit."

For the Pony boys, it will be Brandon Robertson in the top spot again this week for HHS. Robertson, who has taken over the top spot after starting the season slowly, thanks to injury, has really taken off and continues to be the tone setter for the boys team.

Rounding out the rest of the varsity runners for the Havre boys this week will be Sundance Lodge, Austin Jones, Jaime Lieberg, Cameron Knapton, Dylan Stewart and Ryan Stewart.

The Ponies will compete against the likes of Harlem, Browning, Malta, Cut Bank, Shelby, Lewistown, Rocky Boy and others Saturday. The compeititon is always strong at the Havre Invite, but the course is what makes the meet one of the best in the state. The race course at MSU-Northern is known as one of the toughest around, with a steep downhill grade midway through the race, and a tough, uphill climb to the finish line.

"Things are always going to be tough for the boys and even at this meet there will be some very good runners," Heninger said. "I think that this will be a good challenge for our girls. At this point in the season we should be peaking and starting to see some of our best times but especially if Rachel and Morgan run well we should place pretty well."

The Havre Invitational will get underway this Saturday at 10 a.m. The varsity boys race is set for 12:20 p.m. and the girls race will start at 1 p.m. There will also be junior high and junior varsity races Saturday, with the first race of the day set for 10 a.m.