Pony harriers ready to race against the best

When it comes to cross country meets in the state of Montana, there are few, if any, that can compare to the Mountain West Classic.

The annul meet, which is held in Missoula, not only features a number of great teams and runners from Montana, but it also features teams from Washington, Idaho, Oregon and Wyoming, proving that it's not just a prestigious meet in Montana, but one of the most prestigious in the entire Northwest.

"Our kids are really pumped up about it," HHS head coach Josh Holt said. "They have been working really hard in practice this week. Everyone wants to get into this meet, because this is a varsity-only meet for us, so they all have been trying their best to get into it. It will be a good challenge for us and give us a good chance to compete against some elite athletes."

The Mountain West Classic will serve as the second meet for the Havre cross country teams after both Blue Pony teams made their debut last Saturday at the Malta Invitational. The boys team, which features a pair of freshmen, performed well in Malta and took home a second-place finish, meanwhile, the girls team took home a fourth-place finish.

The top individual performer for the HHS boys at Malta was Austin Jones, who will lead the varsity team into action again this week. Yet, freshman Lane Paulson also turned heads, wrapping up a 14th-place finish. Brock Ross was 16th, freshman Jackob Keller was 17th. Cameron Knapton, Barrett Kilgore and Bobby O'Leary will round out the varsity team for HHS this week. Andrew VandenBos will be the alternate runner.

"I think it will give some of our younger kids a great chance to compete against some great runners and see what they are going to be up against down the road at divisionals and state," Holt said. "We have a couple of freshmen on the boys team and one on the girls team and I think that this will show them how much they need to work and what they need to do in terms of training to get to that next level.

Last year, the Havre High girls performed solidly at the meet and no one performed better than senior Rachel David, who finished just outside the Top 100 a season ago. David, who is coming off a fifth-place showing in Malta, should have a good chance at being one of the best 100 runners at the meet.

In addition to David, the Havre girls will also be running Nicole Parsons, who was 16th a week ago, Hannah Lunak, who was 25th, as well as Meggie Zook and Marca Herron, who were 27th and 32nd a week ago. The other two runners that will make up the varsity squad for the Pony girls in Missoula will be Rainey Stoner, who did not compete in Malta and Amelia Miller. Alara Vogel will also travel with the team as its alternate.

"Right now, our goal is just to finish the race," Holt said. "This is probably the kids' favorite meet by far and we are excited to compete against some high, high level athletes, but our goal as a team is just be better than we were last year. We want to be able to run as tough as we did (in Malta) and want to compete with the other schools at our level."

The Havre High cross country teams will compete at the Mountain West Classic this Saturday in Missoula, with the races set to get started at 10 a.m.