Blue Pony track teams ready to run

Rome wasn't built in a day and neither are great track teams. But with a solid foundation in place and an increasing number of good, all-around athletes coming out and competing, the future is bright for the Havre High track teams.

And believe it or not, both the boys and girls track teams are set to make their 2015 debuts this Saturday in Lewistown. The meet will give both the boys team, which finished third at the Central A divisionals last year, and the girls team, which placed fourth, a chance to gain some experience as they embark on a new season.

"We are really young," Havre head coach John Ita said. "But, we have some very good athletes. We have some talented returners, and we also have a lot of freshmen, which is a promising sign. They are young right now and full of potential, but if we can get those numbers up to stay and keep them around till their senior year, then they could turn into something special."

When it comes to the HHS boys team there is reason to be optimistic with over 40 members on the team. And while the Ponies will certainly miss Kade Rismon, who was a top point-scorer a year ago, luckily, HHS still has his brother Nate Rismon, a junior, who returns after competing at the Class A state meet a year ago and placing at divisionals in in the 200-meter dash, the 400 meters and the triple jump.

Havre will also boast three others that competed at state and placed at divisionals in Gunner Aageson, who finished second at divisionals in the pole vault, Michael Loftus, who was third in the 200 and fifth in the 100 and Nick Keller, who finished fourth at divisionals in the high jump.

"We have some good looking kids," Ita said. "I think we have some kids that came out to improve their speed and strength for other sports, which is perfect for us, that's exactly what we want. We just have very little upperclassmen leadership and we are very young. We have some promising athletes, we just don't have a lot of point-getting experience."

Others who will contribute for the boys team this year include Ivar Aageson, Zane Anderson, Ryan Bakke, Dontus Bautista, Richard Belcourt, JayR Caplette, Eddy Ducharme, Dane Flammond, Chris Gabrielsen, Kane Gabrielsen, Tanner Hentschel, Zach Hunt, Levi Huston, Jacob Irvin, Wyatt Johnstone, Austin Jones, Luke Karnauskas, Keith Thomas, Cole Keller, Rocky Kuhr, Jacob LaBrie, Dave Main, Derek Matosich, James May, Bobby O'Leary, Shawn Raty, Cody Rennick, Tyres Rodarte, Connor Spraker, Jase Stokes, Isaac Warp, Dusty Weiss, Walter White, Brady Wolf and Marc Woronik.

The Pony girls team, which is coming off a fourth-place showing at divisionals a year ago, also has a slew of returners who will lead the way for a young and talented team.

The Pony girls have five girls who placed at divisionals a season ago, and heading the list is Rachel David, who finished fourth in the 400 and the 800, as well as Naomi Terry, who was sixth in the 300 hurdles and fifth in the long jump.

Yet, the top returning placer from a season ago was Carleigh Rennick, who was second in the javelin. Another thrower, Kristen Nash also returns after finishing third in the discus at divisionals and Ceyara Plante is also back after a fifth-place finish in the high jump.

"We are very young with the girls, too. We only have two seniors returning," Ita said. "We have 15 or 16 freshmen girls out, and we had 15 or 16 girls out total last year. We have good, quality kids and they like track and outside of our known quantities, we have some freshmen that will be legitimate in events like the hurdles and things like that right away."

The rest of the girls team features Amelia Beard, Emilee Cariveau, Kiara Christianson, Ireland Coyne, Logan Huebsch, Addison Kinsella, Alissa Nanini, Kaitlyn Nystrom, Kaylee Nystrom, Laine Shettel, Esther Stocker, Lainee Van Voast, Megan Alexander, Megan Erickson, Laiken Harris, Jordan Keith, Celeste Luna, Ryen Olson, Kyla Tomac, Loni Waid and Corissa White.

As always, the Ponies have a challenging schedule, which includes big meets in Belgrade and Whitefish. The Ponies also have four home meets slated this season, including the Cal Wearly April 8 and the Havre Invitational April 11. Havre will also host GFH in a dual and Lewistown and Malta in a triangular during the regular season.

The Ponies will open their season this Saturday in Lewistown before competing in the annual Cal Wearly Invitational April. The season will then wind down on May. 15-16, when Havre will compete in the last-ever Central A divisional track mee which will be in Belgrade before finishing the season at the Class A state meet in Laurel on May 22-23.