Ponies run hard in Lewistown

The Havre High cross country teams continue to get early-season challenges at the meets both teams have been competing in. And that was especially true last Friday in Lewistown.

Both the Blue Pony boys and the Blue Pony girls made the trip to Lewistown, and not only did each team see plenty of Class A competition, both got to run against a couple of Class AA schools as Billings Senior and Billings Skyview were both in attendance. The HHS boys had another solid performance, finishing sixth with a total of 177 points. Billings Skyview won the meet with 47 points; Billings Senior was second with 53 and Laurel was third with 87.

On the girls side of things, the Ponies were also very competitive. Havre finished seventh in the race with 178 points, well behind Billings Senior, which took first with 26. Hardin came in second with 77 and Winnett/Melstone was third with 120.

The highlight of the day on either team was freshman Kadia Miller, who finished fourth overall in the meet for the Havre High girls after posting a time of 20:33. Miller was the top Class A finisher at the meet.

“Kadia ran an exceptional race from start to finish,” HHS head coach Josh Holt said. “She was bested only by three Class AA runners from Billings Senior and she continues to improve week after week.”

After Miller, the next best finisher for the Havre girls was Nicole Parsons, who finished 31st with a time of 24:08. Melanie Jones finished 40th for Havre with a time of 25:01. The other varsity runners for Havre included Amelia Miller, who finished 48th (26:05). Meggie Zook, who was 55th (27:56), Rhoda Peterson, who was 56th (28:06) and Hannah Lunak, who was 66th.

As far as the Havre boys were concerned, the top runner was Austin Jones, who ran an 18:08 to notch a 16th-place finish in the meet. Jakob Keller also had a good day for the Ponies, posting a time of 18:51 to get 32nd place, while Trevor Williams ran a 19:22 to finish in 35th. The other finishers for the Havre varsity team were Quinn Reno, who was 44th (20:07), Barrett Kilgore, who was 50th (20:37), Andrew VandenBos, who was 57th (21:15) and Cameron Pleninger, who came in 60th place with a time of 21:20.

“Austin has been very consistent this season,” Holt said. “And the Lewistown course is very hilly course and challenging. Austin ran very strong on a tough course.”

The Ponies will be back in action next Saturday, when they will be in Missoula for the prestigious Mountain West Classic.