Finally: Ponies enjoy a day on the track

It came much later than expected, but the track season for Havre High and a number of other local schools finally got underway Monday night in Glasgow at the Scottie Qualifier.

Both Glasgow teams performed well, as the girls team won the meet, finishing with 106 points, 29.5 ahead of the Blue Pony girls, who finished second with 76.5. Scobey was third with 70. On the boys side of things, Scobey won the team title with 116 points followed by Glasgow in second with 105. North Star was third with 50 and Turner was fifth with 34. The Havre boys also finished seventh with 31 points.

In the first meet of the season, the Ponies crowned individual champions on both the boys and girls teams. Ireland Coyne took home the 100-meter hurdles with a time of 17.54, finishing just ahead of teammate Logan Huebsch, who was fourth (18.40). Huebsch also finished third in the 300 hurdles with a time of 52.18. For the Havre boys it was Ivar Aageson who led the way, winning the long jump (19-03) and taking second in the high jump (5-10). Aageson also finished third in the 300-meter hurdles with a time of 43.84.

Outside of Aageson, only a handful of others placed for the Pony boys. One of them was Andrew Boucher, who finished fourth in the 200 (25.18). The other top-six finishers were Cole Watson, who goth fifth in the 100 (12.52) and Preston Glock, who tallied a sixth-place showing in the 110 hurdles (19.79).

While the Havre boys were never really in contention for the team title, the Pony girls put themselves in the mix with 19 top-six finishes in the meet. The Pony girls did well in the sprints with Taylor Torgerson getting fifth in the 100 (14.06) and fourth in the 400 (1:07). Katie Wirtzberger also placed in two different sprint events, getting second in the 400 (1:05) and fourth in the 200 (28.57), two spots ahead of teammate Grace Loftus, who finished sixth (28.9). Kyndall Keller (1:08) and Loy Waid (1:09) also placed fifth and sixth respectively in the 400, giving Havre fourth of the top six finishers in the race.

In the distance events, Havre also picked up points thanks to Britton Paulson, who notched fifth-place showings in both the 800 (2:56) and the 1,600 (6:39). Waid, Wirtzberger, Jessa Chvilicek and Torgerson also combined to finish third in the 1,600-meter relay with a time of 4:44. Jordan Keith also finished fourth in the shot put with a throw of 31-08, while Sarah Faber (4-10) and Chvilicek (4-10) were second and third in the high jump. Loni Waid was fifth in the pole vault (13-11) and Amelia Beard also had a solid day, finishing fifth in the long jump (13-11) and sixth in the triple jump (29-00).

Another local team that performed well in the girls meet was Chinook, which finished sixth with 34 points. Megan Molyneaux stood out for the Sugarbeeters, getting second in the 100 meters (13.99), third in the 200 meters (27.97) and helped the 400-meter relay team take second along with Jaye Anderson, Kourtney Hanson and Lincy Johnson. They combined to run the lap in 56 seconds. Raynee Hasler also scored points for the Chinook girls with a second-place finish in the 3,200 with a time of 14:22. Hanson managed a sixth in the 800 (2:58) and in the discus, Rachel Gunderson was fifth with a throw of 85-00. She also finished sixth in the javelin with a toss of 100-03.

The Chinook boys only scored 10 points in the meet with most coming from Trajan Hannum, who was fourth in the 800 (2:15) and fifth in the 1,600 (5:18). J.J. Colby also finished fourth in the 300 hurdles for the Beeters with a time of 45.41.

As far as North Star was concerned, the boys team earned its third-place finish thanks to some outstanding performances from Devon and Dylan Miller. Dylan Miller won the 200 with a time of 23.88, finishing two spots ahead of Caden Rettig, who got third (24.94). Devon Miller also contributed by finishing third in the 100 (12.05), second in the javelin (146-07)and fourth in the discus (115-06). He also ran on the 400-meter relay team along with Dylan Miller, Rettig and Payne Ditmar, finishing second with a time of 47.46.

Speaking of great individual performances, Cody Welsh of Turner put on quite a show, helping the Tornadoes score 34 points and finish fifth. Welsh finished second in the 110 hurdles (17.23) and the 300 hurdles (43.69), while also getting fourth in the high jump (5-06). Jack Harmon also had a stellar outing, getting second in the 400 (55.65) and sixth in the 800 (2:25).

The Turner girls managed to score just 14 points and they all came from Sarah Billmayer, who was second in the 300 hurdles (18.51), fifth in the 100 hurdles (18.51) and fourth in the long jump (14-03). The North Star girls finished right behind Turner with 12 points, thanks to a fourth-place finish from Katelin Harvey in the 800 (2:52), as well as fourth-place finishes from Janae West in the javelin (102-05) and Chelsea Donaldson in the discus (89-08).