Ponies return to the links

After a full week off from competition, the Havre High boys and girls golf teams will be excited to get back on the golf course. And the Blue Ponies get that chance Friday morning.

Havre heads to Lewistown for the annual Lewistown Invitational, the Blue Ponies' first tournament since the Browning Invitational last month.

And, Friday's tournament, which will also feature Central A rivals Lewistown, Livingston, Belgrade as well as Browning, will be the start of the home stretch for the Blue Ponies of head coach Brett Gilman.

Following the Lewistown Invite, the Ponies go to Billings and Laurel next week, and then, all that's left in their season will be the Central A and Class A state tournaments. So Friday's 18-hole tourney in Lewistown will be a big jumping off point for the Ponies.

On the girls side, Havre has been strong thus far, and the Ponies, led by junior Teagan Fee, should only get better down the stretch. Fee has Top-5 finishes in each of her last four tournaments, including medalist honors at the Browning Invite. But, Havre's lineup is deep too, as Grace Litzinger, Regan Lammers and Kinzee Peterson have also posted multiple Top-10 finishes this season. Freshman Jocelyn Staples rounds out the Pony lineup.

Meanwhile, Havre's young boys are still experiencing a learning curve. The Ponies are composed of all first-year golfers, so, varsity meets have been tough on HHS. Still, youthful golfers like Caleb Chambliss, Nolan Lotton and Josh Warp are improving every day, and that's been the goal all along. Havre's boys lineup is also ever-changing, but in the next two weeks, Gilman will have a set HHS lineup ahead of the divisional tournament.

And the Central A meet is rapidly approaching, as HHS has just 54 holes left in the regular season. The first 18 of those holes comes Friday at the Lewistown Invite, held at Pine Meadows Golf Course.