Winter still interfering with Blue Pony track

It has been a difficult few weeks for all the local high school sports teams and Thursday, they each got some more bad news as all the events scheduled for this weekend were officially canceled.

That includes what might have been the first meet of the season for the Havre High track teams. Both Blue Pony squads were scheduled to compete at the Lewistown Invitational Saturday, but the meet was canceled due to snow. The Ponies will now hope to open their season Tuesday in Glasgow.

"Lewistown got canceled," HHS head track coach John Ita said. "But as far as I know, we are good to go with Glasgow on Tuesday."

The Lewistown Invite was supposed to be the second track meet of the season for the Ponies, who were scheduled to open with the annual Cal Wearley, which is hosted by North Star and features lots of schools, as well as hundreds of athletes. That meet will now take place April 18 in Havre if weather allows.

After missing out on the first two meets of the season, the Havre track teams will hope to get outside and compete for the first time this season and in the next couple of weeks, there will be a slew of opportunities. It starts with the meet in Glasgow Tuesday, but that will be followed by the Havre Invite, as long as the weather holds up.

The state of the Havre Middle School track is also an issue. Things were starting to melt, but more snow fell this week, which caused the Havre Tennis Invitational to be canceled and could put the Havre track meet in jeopardy too.

"We need to get some help from the weather," HHS activities director Dennis Murphy said. "We need to get some warmer temperatures but we are hopeful that we will be able to have the kids compete."

The schedule has been messed up for the Havre track teams, and their ability to practice has also been interrupted. Ita said he can still have the runners and throwers do a lot of the form work that they would otherwise be doing, but when it comes to relay teams and pole vaulters, there isn't a whole lot that can be done.

Because the track is not usable because of all the snow, the Ponies have still been forced inside for a lot of their workouts. They have done some running at the Havre High School, while also running outside and working out in the swimming pool a few times a week to get practice on form and stamina.

Havre isn't alone, a lot of other area schools have had many of the same issues due to weather and many from the ranks of Class A, Class B and Class C are hoping to finally get some competition in Tuesday in Glasgow. If not, the next opportunity for the Ponies to the start the season will come next Saturday in the Havre Invitational.