Athletic Blue Ponies hit the track running

The past few seasons, head coach John Ita and the Havre High track teams have been building for the future and this season, for the girls team at least, the Blue Ponies hope all that hard work and development comes to fruition.

While the Pony boys team lost Nate Rismon, who put together a stellar performance at the Class A state meet, the girls team returns a bunch of athletes from a team that scored just 10 points at state, but qualified a bunch of athletes for the state meet.

“The girls team, we have been saying that ‘they’re young, they’re young,” Ita said. “But now they have kind of come of age. We have another group of really excellent, athletic freshman and I think we have people in a lot of different events. We are going to have throwers, distance, middle distance, speed, relays, jumpers, so I think for the girls team it’s going to be an exciting two years at least.”

Arguably the top girl returning for Havre is senior Naomi Terry, who placed at state in the 100 and 200-meter dashes last season. However, due to an injury, Terry will have to sit out for about six weeks before she will be able to attempt a comeback.

“Naomi is going to miss like six weeks or so,” Ita said. “But she wants to give it a try and we want to let her.”

Terry may be sidelined, but the girls team has other talented athletes, especially in the hurdles where juniors Logan Huebsch and Ireland Coyne will be looking to be consistent point getters. Both should have a chance to compete in the relays and Coyne may also run some sprints.

Some others that are returning that competed at state a season ago were Kristen Nash in the throwing events; Loni Waid in the pole vault and Amelia Beard in the triple jump. Other contributors for the Havre girls team this year will be Jordan Keith, Sarah Faber, Kassidy Compton and Taylor Markinovich.

The rest of the girls team includes Jessa Chvilicek, Gillian Dorrance, Laiken Harris, Devyn Huebsch, Melanie Jones, Katherine Keith, Jocelyn Ketchum, Ashlin Kim, Grace Loftus, Alex McDermott, Abbey Morse, Ashlin Rosgaard, Lilly Taly, Caitlyn Terry, Kyley Verploegen, Megan Whitford, Danielle Wallace and Katie Wirtzberger

“I think it’s exciting,” Ita said. “We don’t have a ton of seniors, but the ones we do have are really good vocal leaders and I think it’s going to be a really exciting year for the girls team. We didn’t score a lot of points at divisionals and state last season, but we were very competitive and had a lot of girls that were really close. With another year of work and them getting faster and stronger, we are excited. We think that we have girls that can score points in just about every area.”

The HHS girls may be realizing their potential this season, but for the boys team, it will be all about rebuilding after a number of talented performers graduated from last season’s team. Jacob LaBrie, who was a member of Havre’s 1,600-meter relay team that won the Class A state championship a year ago, is back, but there is very little experience otherwise.

One place where the Ponies do have some veterans is in the distance events, where they will be led by Austin Jones, Jakob Keller and Lane Paulson. Ethan Roberts will compete in sprints and jumps, but another name to watch this year for the Havre boys is Martin Wilkie, a two-time state champion wrestler, who decided to come out for track. Ita said he will try him in a few different events, but that he may wind up as a jumper, pole vaulter or sprinter.

Rounding out the rest of the boys roster this season are Noah Azure, Donatus Bautista, Andy Boucher, Preston Glock, Connor Harris, Ethan Lines, Sage Lone Bear, Casey Mariani, JJ Parker, Tanner Parsons, Marc Ramirez, Mason Rismon, Brandon Shaw, Kelden Sullivan, Julian Top Sky, Andrew VandenBos, Cole Watson, Trevor Williams and Marc Woronik.

“We have some really good athletes,” Ita said. “And the boys are really working hard, too. We just don’t have very many proven point getters.”

The Ponies will have a busy start to their season like usual, as they will take part in the Central Montana Invitational in Lewistown this weekend. After that, Havre will compete in the Cal Wearley Invitational, which will take place at the Havre Middle School track on Wednesday.

Both teams will then go to Cut Bank, April 13, before hosting the Havre Lions Track Meet in Havre April 15.

“The biggest thing for us in a lot of these early meets, is not to have the kids do too much,” Ita said. “We don’t want to load up the kids with a bunch of events and then have them get hurt. We want to do well in these track meets, but our goal isn’t to win them or score a lot of points in them. We are trying to do that down the road at divisionals and state. So we want our best athletes ready. So we are only going to have the kids do probably a couple of events to start out with.”

The Havre High track teams will be in Lewistown Saturday for their first meet of the season. Havre then participates in the Cal Wearley on Wednesday, followed by the Lions Havre Invite next Saturday.