Blue Pony runners out to finish the regular season

The Havre Invitational cross country meet was not only a chance for the Havre cross country teams to run at home, it also signals the start of the stretch run for both Havre High teams.

From here on out, the Ponies will have nothing but important meets on their schedule, starting today in Helena at the Preview Meet. The meet, which features runners from just about every team in Montana, got underway this afternoon.

“The kids have been thinking about it and talking about it since the bus ride back from Missoula,” HHS head coach Josh Holt said. “They really enjoy having all the No. 7’s and all the No. 6’s and so on running together. They get a kick out of that and it’s a pretty good race.”

The preview meet used to give runners from all schools a chance to try out the course that the state meet would be run on, but with the meet to be held in Kalispell this year, it will mostly be a preview of who both HHS teams will run against at state.

Most of the Class A schools will be there, which will give both Pony teams a chance to size up their competition before the Central A Divisional meet next week in Belgrade and the state meet, which will be Oct. 22.

“We will get to see quite a few Class A schools,” Holt said. “So we will get to see quite a bit of our competition. I don’t know about Sidney and Miles City, I don’t know if they will make the trip, they may be some of the few schools that we won’t see, but other than that, we should see pretty much all the schools.”

Leading the way for the Pony boys this week will be top runner Austin Jones, who will run the No. 1’s this week, while sophomore Jakob Keller, will run with the No. 2’s. The other varsity runners this week for the Havre boys include Trevor Williams, Quinn Reno, Barrett Kilgore, Noah Azure and Aylan Pratt.

On the girls side of things, the Ponies will again be led by sensational freshman Kadia Miller, who was second in the Havre Invite and will test her skills against the other top runners in Class A.

The rest of the Havre girls team at the Preview Meet will feature Nicole Parsons, Kaylee Nystrom, Amelia Miller, Melanie Jones, Meggie Zook and Lily Tally.

“Right now, I am really pleased with the way that the kids are coming along,” Holt said. “I think that we have been improving and getting better. We have worked really hard and are going to take it a little easier as we prepare for divisionals and state, but we are expecting to have everyone run their best times at the end of the year and that’s what we are working towards right now.”

Both Havre High teams will be in action in Helena this afternoon in the Preview Meet.