Blue Ponies race for Class A glory

All season long, the Havre High cross country teams have been preparing to run in the biggest meet of the season, the Class A state meet. It's not only the last meet of the season, it's a culmination of hard work and dedication, as well as an opportunity to run against the best competition the state of Montana has to offer. 

The Blue Ponies will seek to end their season on a high note and will go head-to-head against the rest of Class A at state, which will take place this Saturday at the Bill Roberts Golf Course in Helena. 

"Everyone is excited for state," HHS head coach Darcy Heninger said. "It's such a big meet and It's always exciting to see all the great runners from the state of Montana run. So everyone is really excited to run at state. I am also excited to see everyone run and see how much their times have improved."

Last year at state, the Havre High girls finished fourth and just missed out on bringing home a trophy. After finishing third last week at the Central A Divisional meet, the Ponies may not be in contention for any hardware this season, but individuals such as Rachel David and Morgan Mazurkiewicz have a chance to place highly.

Mazurkiewicz finished 25th and David finished 36th at state a season ago and will be looking to use that experience to help them finish in the Top 10 Saturday. 

"If Morgan and Rachel can run the way they ran the last time we were in Helena for the 7-on-7 race, I think they will have a chance to place well at state," Heninger said. "It's an easier course than we ran at divisionals, so if they can keep their mind set and stay focused on their race, they should be able to place in the Top 15 at state. But, they just have to run really hard and be smart about their race."

The rest of the runners that will compete at state for the HHS girls will be Tori Mazurkiewicz, Rainey Stoner, Marca Herron, Maya Reed and Brooke LaValle. 

“If the girls team can just get their pack time down, if they can close that gap, I think they can finish in the Top 10,” Heninger said. “It just depends on if they can close that gap and achieve that goal of getting their pack time down.”

The Pony boys also return an experienced team with five of the seven runners that will compete Saturday having run at state a year ago. Those runners with previous state experience include Brandon Robertson, Brock Ross, Sundance Lodge, Cameron Knapton and Dylan Stewart.

Havre’s best hope of a Top 10 finish on the boys side of things will be Robertson, who finished sixth last week at divisionals.

“If Brandon can just run hard like he has at every race, he can place highly at state,” Heninger said. “But physically and mentally he has to run a smart race. He has to focus on not going out too fast on that first mile and making sure that his last mile is faster than his first.”

Austin Jones and Jamie Lieberg will also run for HHS and will be making their first appearance at state.

The field will be loaded with good teams in the boys and girls competitions, but some of the top contenders will be Belgrade, Browning, Whitefish, Corvallis and Lewistown just to name a few.

The Havre boys will face a deeper, more competitive field than the girls but if they run well, they still have the potential to finish well according to Heninger.

“If the boys just close that gap on their pack time and run hard, they can place higher than last year,” Heninger said. “But it just depends on how they run because there are so many good runners.”

Regardless of how the teams finish, each runner will get the opportunity to compete against the best and see how they stack up. The meet will get underway at 10 a.m. Saturday in Helena.

“It’s always exciting to go to state in high school because you don’t expect runners to be as good as they are,” Heninger said. “It’s a little nerve racking when you are at a state meet but once you get started, it’s so much fun and exciting to see how fast runners really are in Montana.”