HHS harriers forced to wait

The Havre High cross country teams were hoping to get their season underway this past Friday at the Cut Bank time trials. But, unfortunately, due to rainy conditions and a soggy golf course, where the meet was supposed to take place, it didn't happen.

"There ended up being some standing water at the golf course," HHS head coach Josh Holt said. "So the meet ended up being cancelled. It was disappointing because we were excited to compete, but we will just move on and get ready for Malta.

So now instead of opening their season at Cut Bank, the Blue Ponies will do so this coming Saturday, when they will compete in the Malta Invitational. The meet will get started at 10 a.m.

The only thing that complicates matters for HHS is that historically, the meet in Cut Bank has been used to determine who will be the seven varsity runners for both the HHS boys and girls teams.

But, now that Havre was not able to determine that in Cut Bank, Holt will look to practice this week to determine his varsity roster for the Malta Invite. Yet, even if a runner is not on the varsity all of his runners will head to Malta to get some competition under their belt.

"Everyone will be going to Malta," Holt said. "I have a pretty good idea of who is going to be on the varsity, but I need to watch a bit more (in practice)."

On the girls side of things, there appears to be plenty of promising candidates, led by the team's top performer from a season ago in Rachel David. David, who is now a senior for HHS, finished 12th at state a season ago and is back for another season with the varsity squad.

Along with David, the HHS girls also boast sophomore Marca Herron, as well as Maggie Zook and Rainey Stoner, who each ran with the varsity team a season ago. In addition to those four runners, others that will compete to be on the varsity team this week in Malta are Alara Vogel, Hannah Lunak, Nicole Parsons, Payton Healy and Adrienne Miller.

On the boys side of things, Holt also has a decent amount of experience to rely on for this season as Brock Ross, Austin Jones and Cameron Knapton, who all competed at state for Havre a season ago are back.

And in addition to those runners, Holt also has a number of young runners who are attempting to work their way into the weekly lineup such as Andrew VandenBos, Bobby O'Leary, Lane Paulson, Barrett Kilgore, Jacob Keller, Noah Azure, Vander Swenson and Zach Barnes.

The meet in Malta will be a good way for the Ponies to start the season as they will compete against Malta as well as a a number of other schools in the area such as Glasgow, Rocky Boy and Poplar, along with a number of other Class B and C schools from the region.

The meet will get underway at 10 a.m., in Malta in what will be Holt's debut for the Ponies as head coach of cross country.