Area tracksters ready for Glasgow Top 10

For the Havre High track teams, as the season goes on, the competitions get bigger and when it comes to the regular season, few meets mean more to the Blue Ponies than the annual Glasgow North/East Top 10.

Both Blue Pony teams should have a strong presence in Glasgow tonight for the prestigious meet, which features more than 30 teams from Class A, Class B and Class C. The field events are scheduled to begin with the pole vault at 3 p.m. The running events will open at 4:15 p.m. with 110 hurdles. The meet will conclude around 7 tonight with the 1,600 relay.

"This is one of the meets that the kids get really excited to compete in," HHS head coach John Ita said. "The problem is that we have some nagging injuries and some athletes we have been trying to sort of nurse back to health. We want to get them ready for the Top 10 but we also want to be careful with them, too."

When it comes to both Havre teams, the strength is the runners. The Pony girls have a number of talented sprinters with a chance to make noise at the Top 10 meet and those include Katie Wirtzberger, Jessa Chvilicek and Loy Waid. Waid, a sophomore, will run the 400 for Havre and comes in as the No. 3 seed. Chvilicek is also the third seed, in the 100-meter dash, and Wirtzberger will be competing in the 200, along with teammate Grace Loftus. A number of Havre girls qualified in multiple events, such as Kadia Miller, who could run in the 800 and the 1,600 but will race in just one event. Hannah Haslem is another distance runner who earned her way into the 800.

While Chvilicek has been stellar in the sprints for Havre this season, she is also one of the top high jumpers in the field, coming in fourth with a jump of 5-02 as a season-best jump. Sarah Faber will also compete in the high jump, as the sixth seed. Faber can also compete in the long jump alongside Loftus, who also qualified in that event. Waid is also eligible to compete in the triple jump, as she qualified last Saturday in Great Falls in her first attempt in the event all season long.

"We have a lot of kids that have qualified in a few different events," Ita said, "but it's just not possible to do them all. We want to be smart, so we will let them pick one or maybe two events, depending on their health and try to focus on doing well in that one event."

The Ponies will also come into the meet with the top relay teams in the both the 400 and 1,600 relays. Loftus, Waid, Wirtzberger and Chvilicek are scheduled to run the 400 relay, while Wirtzberger, Waid and Chvilicek are set to do the long relay, along with freshman Sadie Filius, who will also compete in the 300 hurdles, although the relay events are subject to change.

Even though the Havre boys won't send as many athletes to Glasgow as the girls team, the Ponies will still be well-represented. Andrew Boucher has qualified for both the 200 and 400, ranking as fourth or better in each event. He is also part of the boys 400-meter relay team, which also made it to the Top 10 meet, thanks to a team that also includes Brandon Shaw, Brock Nystrom and Nolan Lotton.

Preston Glock, who will take part in the 110 hurdles, will be one of the first Havre boys to compete and then, after the sprints, HHS will have a slew of runners in distance events, with representatives in the 800 (Jakob Keller), 1,600 (Dylan Young and Noah Azure) and 3,200 (Azure). Mason Rismon also earned his way into the Top 10, in the javelin, while Nystrom also made it as an individual in the pole vault.

After heading to Glasgow this evening, both Havre teams will host the Havre Invite this Saturday at the Havre Middle School track.