Havre High golf teams wrap up the regular season

Havre Daily News Staff

All that stood between the Havre High golf teams and the Class A postseason was 36 holes. And the Blue Ponies took advantage of that opportunity this past week.

Havre played at the Billings Central Invitational Thursday at Eagle Rock Golf Club, then played in the prestigious Laurel Invite Friday at the Laurel Golf Club. And HHS head coach George Ferguson said, both tournaments were extremely beneficial.

"It was a great two rounds for our kids," Ferguson said. "We played against all of our Eastern A opponents that we'll see at divisionals, so that was big for us. But what's even more important I think, was the fact that we played two really tough golf courses, under totally different conditions. I think this time of year, you want to be challenged, and we were definitely challenged in both tournaments. So that was great experience for all of our kids."

Havre played the Billings Central Invite Thursday, which featured all of the Eastern A, as well as all three Class AA schools from Billings. The Pony boys wound up finishing seventh overall in the team competition, with junior Caleb Chambliss and sophomore Kale Reno each shooting a 91, followed by Josh Warp and Tyrel Kjersem at 92, and Tavish McLean at 96. The Havre girls were short-handed on the trip, and were led by Jocelyn Staples with a 107, Sylvie McKeon-Hanson at 113 and Carlee Kato at 125.

While the Billings Invite was played under warm, sunny skies, Friday in Laurel was anything but. Under rainy, chilly conditions, and on one of the toughest tracks in the state, Havre battled the same field as Thursday, except, it also included the Bozeman Hawks, the best team in Class AA.

On the boys side, Havre finished in the top four among Class A schools, with Chambliss shooting an 87, Warp a 92, Reno a 94, McLean a 96 and Kjersem a 97. The girls were once again led by Staples with a 116, while Kato shot a 136.

"Our kids did a really good job," Ferguson said. "I thought, the best part of the week was, they got better at Laurel, they improved from Billings to Laurel, and Laurel is a very difficult course even when it's nice out, and it wasn't nice out at all. So no matter the scores, I thought we played better golf the second day, in really tough conditions, and that's what you want to see right now, consistency, and I thought we had a very consistent road trip. I'm really proud of the kids, too, for toughing it out on Friday, because it was by no means easy."

Havre will return to Laurel, too, for the Class A state tournament in two weeks. But first up is a trip to Sidney for Thursday's Eastern A Divisional Tournament.