HHS swimmers race towards the postseason

The pool in Great Falls has always been familiar to the Havre High swim team and there has always been some sort of competition in the water there. The Blue Ponies have made some big splashes and some great moments in Great Falls. But they are not done just yet.

Havre will be heading down to Great Falls once more to participate in the Great Falls Meet Saturday in the Swarthout Fieldhouse Pool. There has been two other meets in Great Falls this season already, the first meet back in December and the Stacy Frey Memorial I-15 Invitational last week.

"This meet will just be us and the two Great Falls teams, so it will be a nice swim meet with two teams that we consider friends," Kilgore said. "We have planned to eat dinner with them after the meet and allow the kids to meet new friends and have a chance to get to know each other. We started that last year, and I hope it continues in the future. We swim against them so much, but we are in different classes, so our kids will always cheer for them when they are fighting against the other Class AA schools, and they cheer us on in Class A."

The Ponies have been pushing to the limit in Great Falls previously. Last weekend, the girls team placed fifth overall above Class AA schools Billings Senior and Billings West, while the boys team finished sixth overall over Billings Senior. On top of that, there were some nice individual performances, as well.

When it comes to this weekend, many swimmers will look to continue to make waves in Great Falls. On the girls team, Kobi Burchard, Megan Miller, Angela Rhines, Hannah Pratt and others will have a great day in their sights. On top of that, the girls Havre A team has aims to place well like last week when they took third place in the Girls 200 Freestyle Relay.

Meanwhile, swimmers on the boys team like Jacob Miller, Hiram Cammon, Carson Sandstrom, Wyatt Hagstrom, Riley Kilgore, Troy Powell and more have been diving into some big things this season, too. There will be a lot of competitive spirit from the Blue Pony boys in the Great Falls Pool this weekend.

Overall, HHS has had some major strengths in the water throughout the season so far and Kilgore has seen a big improvement from the team at this point in the year.

"I think the biggest improvement for our team is the understanding of the hard work and dedication it takes to be a competitive swimmer," Kilgore said. "For a bunch of new swimmers, I think this year has been an eye-opening experience to just how difficult the sport of swimming really is. I am so proud of all of them, but the kids that learned how to swim at the beginning of the season and our now competing in different strokes and distances, truly have a place in my heart. I am so thankful for Coach Jill Cammon because so much of the teaching the new kids falls to her, and she has truly done a fantastic job with them."

The competition in the Electric City will once again look to be fierce. But this time around, it's just Great Falls High and CMR that will face off against HHS. The opponents will be difficult Friday, but the Ponies are looking to overcome that adversity.

"Our objective is always to cut time in our events, and I believe we will do that Friday," Kilgore said. "Our other objective is to have a fun meet swimming with newfound friends and get a nice break during a long month of competition."

With the end of the regular season drawing closer, Havre will look to make some waves Saturday in the Great Falls Meet in Great Falls.