Blue Pony swimmers finish strong in Polson

The Havre Blue Ponies didn't win any state championships at this weekend's Class A-B state swim meet, but the Ponies had plenty of success, and plenty of fun.

In the end to what was a crazy high school swimming season, the Blue Ponies competed at the state meet Saturday in Polson, with the Havre boys taking fourth place with 35 points and the HHS girls finishing fifth with 30.5 points. Billings Central swept the team titles.

On the boys side, Havre got a pair of All-State finishes from Brigham Blackwell, who took fourth in the 100-yard butterfly with a time of 1:09.62 and fifth in the 50 freestyle at :26.24. Conner McKay also scored for the Ponies, finishing fourth in the 200 freestyle at 2:19.35, while Hiram Cammon finished fourth in the 200 individual medley with a time of 2:35.39 and Wyatt Hagstrom was sixth in the same race. Hagstrom added a fourth-place finish in the 100 backstroke, as well. The Pony boys also scored well in the relays with a second in the 400 free and a fourth in the 200 free.

The Havre girls also had plenty of strong individual swims.

Kobi Burchard finished third (2:34.17) and Kyla Burchard was fourth (2:34.95) in the 200 IM while Aliviah Pratt was an outstanding third in the 100 breaststroke with a time of 1:20.55. Megan Miller also had a pair of sixth-place finishes in the 100 butterfly and 100 backstroke, while Morgan Flammond placed sixth in the 50 free and Blakelee Lines took fifth in the grueling 50 free.

The Havre girls also had a second in the 400 free relay, a fourth in the 200 free relay and a fifth in the 200 medley relay.

"They did real well," HHS head coach Bill Kilgore said of his teams. "The girls were one second off in a relay that would have flipped everything upside down and we would have taken third instead of fifth. I'm real happy with their performance and the boys did a lot better than expected. They placed a lot higher in individual events and in team results and took fourth. I was not expecting that."

In the team competitions, the Central girls scored 102 points, while Bigfork was second and Whitefish took third. The Central boys scored 74 points, just beating out Whitefish, which had 71. Columbia Falls was third in the first-ever State A-B meet not held at the same time as the AA state meet.

And now an interesting swim season has come to an end. Of course, many swimmers will be back after valuable state meet experience this past weekend, while Kilgore also saluted his seniors after their final meet.

"We'll probably to continue to work hard and work hard all season. Swimming is, unfortunately. not just a seasonal sport, it needs to go year round for you to stay in shape to perform at your highest level. Some of the sports you can get away with seasonality but swimming is just one of those things that you got to stick with it all year. To double our efforts when the season comes in and get going.

"It was such a big senior class. We're graduating two boys, they both started the program about two years ago but we got a large group of girls that have been with us for four years and we're graduating a whole lot of experience this year and that's going to hurt us. We're losing experience and leadership that they really pulled through for us."

2021 MSHA State Class A-B Swim Meet

at Polson

Team scores

Girls: 1. Billings Central 102; 2. Bigfork 52; 3. Whitefish 42; 4. Hardin 34; 5. Havre 30.5; 6. Columbia Falls 11.5.

Boys: 1. Billings Central 74; 2. Whitefish 71; 3. Columbia Falls 43; 4. Havre 35; 5. Hardin 20; 6. Polson, 17.

Individual

Girls 200 Yard Medley Relay: 1, Billings Central High School 'A' 2:01.10. 2, Bigfork High School 'A' 2:03.26. 3, Hardin High School 'A' 2:04.79. 4, Columbia Falls High 'A' 2:12.40. 5, Havre High School 'A' 2:16.14. 6, Whitefish High School 'A' 2:17.18.

Boys 200 Yard Medley Relay: 1, Whitefish High School 'A' 1:50.53. 2, Havre High School 'A' 2:06.82. 3, Billings Central High School 'A' 2:07.49.

Girls 200 Yard Freestyle: 1, Early, Alyson, Central, 2:01.85. 2, Anderson, Katelyn, Central, 2:09.18. 3, Hanson, Nia, Whitefish High, 2:09.60. 4, Kills Night, Kiauna, Hardin, 2:17.60. 5, McKeon, Eloise, Cfalls High, 2:19.09. 6, Ralston-Gust, Mia, Central, 2:24.02.

Boys 200 Yard Freestyle: 1, Sloan, Mason, Polson, 1:52.97. 2, Ross, Christian, Central, 2:16.39. 3, Walks Over Ice, Wynn, Central, 2:17.27. 4, McKay, Conner, Havre, 2:19.35. 5, McGovern, Brendan, Central, 2:29.35. 6, Molloy, Aidan, Central, 2:44.06.

Girls 200 Yard IM: 1, Qunell, Ada, Whitefish High, 2:09.12. 2, Beers, Megan, Central, 2:22.20. 3, Burchard, Kobi, Havre, 2:34.67. 4, Burchard, Kyla, Havre, 2:34.95. 5, Templin, Emerald, Cfalls High, 2:35.24. 6, Pallone, Carmen, Hardin, 2:44.86.

Boys 200 Yard IM: 1, Cheff, Connor, Cfalls High, 2:19.32. 2, Hraban, Aedan, Central, 2:27.03. 3, Borgen, Thane, Cfalls High, 2:30.93. 4, Cammon, Hiram, Havre, 2:35.79. 5, Kay, Christian, Central, 2:37.93. 6, Hagstrom, Wyatt, Havre, 2:38.85. 7, Walks Over Ice, Buren, Hardin, 2:45.17. 8, Poling, Joseph, Central, 2:53.87. 9, Niles, Nathan, Whitefish High, 3:02.51.

Girls 50 Yard Freestyle: 1, Thompson, Shelby, Bigfork, 26.05. 2, Kogolshak, Rylee, Hardin, 26.35. 3, Slawter, Sydney, Bigfork, 27.14. 4, Weaver, Kay, Whitefish High, 27.29. 5, Fink, Ava, Central, 28.13. 6, King, Kaylee, Cfalls High, 28.56. 6, Flammond, Morgan, Havre, 28.56.

Boys 50 Yard Freestyle: 1, Mark, Caleb, Hardin, 23.35. 2, McDaniel, Jack, Whitefish High, 23.82. 3, Dalen, Ben, Whitefish High, 24.76. 4, Malmberg, Peyton, Cfalls High, 24.97. 5, Blackwell, Brigham, Havre, 26.41. 6, Wyman, Trey, Polson, 27.99.

Girls 100 Yard Butterfly: 1, Logue, Sophi, Bigfork, 1:05.77. 2, Hanson, Nia, Whitefish High, 1:07.81. 3, Bodine, Lauren, Central, 1:09.13. 4, Pallone, Carmen, Hardin, 1:12.57. 5, Bagley, Norah, Cfalls High, 1:15.63. 6, Miller, Megan, Havre, 1:16.33.

Boys 100 Yard Butterfly: 1, Botner, Logan, Whitefish High, 54.59. 2, Dalen, Ben, Whitefish High, 1:02.99. 3, Richert, Ethan, Central, 1:06.38. 4, Blackwell, Brigham, Havre, 1:09.62.

Girls 100 Yard Freestyle: 1, Early, Alyson, Central, 55.85. 2, Thompson, Shelby, Bigfork, 56.08. 3, Kunz, Myah, Central, 58.14. 4, Burchard, Kobi, Havre, 1:01.47. 5, Flammond, Morgan, Havre, 1:03.16. 6, King, Kaylee, Cfalls High, 1:03.22.

Boys 100 Yard Freestyle: 1, McDaniel, Jack, Whitefish High, 52.87. 2, Snyder, Philip, Central, 54.32. 3, Ross, Christian, Central, 58.87. 4, Bartholomew, Jordan, Central, 1:04.09. 5, Walks Over Ice, Buren, Hardin, 1:04.25. 6, Laman, Grant, East Helena, 1:04.94.

Girls 500 Yard Freestyle: 1, Qunell, Ada, Whitefish High, 5:14.27. 2, Beers, Megan, Central, 5:37.24. 3, Templin, Emerald, Cfalls High, 6:04.48. 4, Kills Night, Kiauna, Hardin, 6:14.86. 5, Lines, Blakelee, Havre, 6:36.62. 6, Uffelman, Abby, Hardin, 6:36.81.

Boys 500 Yard Freestyle: 1, Botner, Logan, Whitefish High, 5:15.43. 2, Schrader, Adam, Cfalls High, 5:38.86. 3, Mark, Toby, Hardin, 6:06.09. 4, Walks Over Ice, Wynn, Central, 6:07.64. 5, McGovern, Brendan, Central, 7:01.04. 6, Blankenship, Johnathan, Cfalls High, 7:10.26.

Girls 200 Yard Freestyle Relay: 1, Billings Central High School 'A' 1:46.93. 2, Bigfork High School 'A' 1:48.97. 3, Whitefish High School 'A' 1:51.87. 4, Havre High School 'A' 1:52.87. 5, Hardin High School 'A' 1:53.51. 6, Columbia Falls High 'A' 2:00.17. 7, East Helena High School 'A' 2:30.21.

Boys 200 Yard Freestyle Relay: 1, Whitefish High School 'A' 1:37.60. 2, Columbia Falls High 'A' 1:38.25. 3, Billings Central High School 'A' 1:42.51. 4, Havre High School 'A' 1:47.97.

Girls 100 Yard Backstroke: 1, Kunz, Myah, Central, 1:02.71. 2, Logue, Sophi, Bigfork, 1:04.91. 3, Slawter, Sydney, Bigfork, 1:08.07. 4, Anderson, Katelyn, Central, 1:08.38. 5, Kunz, Riley, Central, 1:10.23. 6, Miller, Megan, Havre, 1:11.16.

Boys 100 Yard Backstroke: 1, Mark, Caleb, Hardin, 59.24. 2, Dicks, Aaron, Whitefish High, 1:05.33. 3, Borgen, Thane, Cfalls High, 1:07.15. 4, Hagstrom, Wyatt, Havre, 1:08.09. 5, Wyman, Trey, Polson, 1:08.51. 6, Richert, Ethan, Central, 1:10.94.

Girls 100 Yard Breaststroke: 1, Kogolshak, Rylee, Hardin, 1:10.89. 2, Bodine, Lauren, Central, 1:15.67. 3, Pratt, Aliviah, Havre, 1:20.55. 4, Nedens, Aubrey, Hardin, 1:22.43. 5, Hadley, Hannah, Central, 1:24.12. 6, Fink, Ava, Central, 1:24.28.

Boys 100 Yard Breaststroke: 1, Sloan, Mason, Polson, 1:05.18. 2, Cheff, Connor, Cfalls High, 1:10.04. 3, Malmberg, Peyton, Cfalls High, 1:10.67. 4, Dicks, Aaron, Whitefish High, 1:11.07. 5, Kay, Christian, Central, 1:12.76. 6, Hraban, Aedan, Central, 1:12.86.

Girls 400 Yard Freestyle Relay: 1, Billings Central High School 'A' 4:01.71. 2, Havre High School 'A' 4:11.15. 3, Whitefish High School 'A' 4:12.82. 4, Hardin High School 'A' 4:27.88. 5, Columbia Falls High 'A' 4:55.96. 6, Bigfork High School 'A' 5:07.97.

Boys 400 Yard Freestyle Relay: 1, Billings Central High School 'A' 3:50.95. 2, Havre High School 'A' 4:37.88.