Blue Pony harriers ready to race

The Havre Blue Ponies have already seen their new head football coach in action and today, Havre will get a look at Josh Holt, the first-year head coach of the Havre High cross country teams.

Last season, and for the past few years, the Ponies have been in the middle of the pack when it comes to Class A cross country on the boys side as well as the girls. A season ago, at the Class A state meet, the Pony boys notched a 12th-place finish, while the girls ended up 13th.

Yet, even though they were not a state title contender a year ago, the Ponies do have some promising runners back for this season, along with a slew of talented youngsters. That and the enthusiasm and new training regimen brought by coach Holt may be just what the doctor ordered for the HHS cross country team to excel. And that regimen will be tested for the first time today as the Ponies compete in the Cut Bank time trials.

"My biggest goal this year is just trying to build a program," Holt said. "We have a few seniors but we have a lot of young kids and they are really excited about it, so that has made the training a lot of fun. We have been working with the kids on all sorts of things from their technique, to pace, really just teaching them about the broad spectrum of running. We also have gotten them in the weight room to try and have that strength and balance as well. And so far it has gone really well, the kids have trained hard and they are really taking to what we are teaching them, so I really think we have a chance to surprise some people."

One nice thing for Holt is that when he came in for his first season at the helm for the Ponies, he did not take over a program in which the cupboard was bare, in fact it's far from it, especially on the girls team.

Havre not only returns its top individual performer from a season ago in Rachel David, who finished 12th at state a season ago, but the Ponies also return others with varsity experience such as sophomore Marca Herron, Meggie Zook and Rainey Stoner. HHS did lose both Morgan and Tori Mazurkiewicz to graduation, but overall Holt feels good about the talent coming back on the girls team, especially with some of the young talent that is starting to emerge.

"Rachel hasn't been practicing with us because of some previous work commitments, but she trained with us during the offseason," Holt said. "So we will need to get her up to speed, but she is a great runner. And I think we have a lot of other talented runners that want to do well."

In addition to the three returners from a season ago, the Pony girls will also be looking for others such as Alara Vogel, Hannah Lunak, Nicole Parsons, Payton Healy and Adrienne Miller to compete for time on the varsity squad.

On the boys side of things, the Ponies will be also be counting on three that have state experience. The first in Brock Ross, who finished 72nd at state a season ago, followed by Austin Jones, who was 78th and Cameron Knapton, who was 83rd.

The Havre boys will also be counting on other runners to step up and fill the out the varsity roster and those who will be in contention include Andrew VandenBos, Bobby O'Leary, Lane Paulson, Barrett Kilgore, Jacob Keller, Noah Azure, Vander Swenson and Zach Barnes.

"This year really will be a building year for us but I still believe that we can surprise some people," Holt said. "I think that we have some good things and once they start to get down some of these things that we are teaching we could really take off. Honestly, I think that we have enough talent and depth that we can surprise some people this season. I really do."

After competing in Cut Bank, which is the meet Holt will use to determine the varsity spots for the rest of the season, HHS will take part in one of the most prestigious meets in the state of Montana in a couple weeks, when they will run at the Mountain West Classic in Missoula Sept. 19. But, as this point, Holt isn't looking too far into the future, he is just focused on his team taking to the fundamentals.

"Running is a very fundamental thing," Holt said. "So we want to make sure we have that good technique and are doing everything we can to help these kids do things the right way. If we can do that, I think we will be successful this year and in the long run.”

The Ponies will start their season today in Cut Bank with the meet set to start at 4.