HHS track teams face a good field at Lewistown Invite

The Havre High track and field teams competed hard at last weekend’s Lions Havre Invite. And most teams would be jealous of their finish considering the boys team finished third and the girls team finished fifth out of 22 schools. Before that, both Blue Pony teams finished second in every meet. Now, the Ponies try to reach those heights again as they head on the road for the Fergus Invitational in Lewistown this Saturday.

“Excited to see us go out and compete at a high level,” HHS head coach Ryan Gatch said.

Havre will be one of 12 teams competing in the meet this weekend. Along with the host Lewistown, the Ponies will compete against Belt, Denton-Geyser-Stanford, Harlowton/Ryegate, Hays-Lodge Pole, Highwood, Hobson-Moore-Judith Gap, Malta, Livingston, Roy-Winifred and Winnett-Grass Range.

Lewistown should finish near the top this weekend after their boys team finished second in the Havre meet and their girls team took first. Malta also competed in the Havre meet where their boys team finished fourth behind Havre. Behind them in fifth place was Hobson-Moore-Judith Gap while Hays-Lodge Pole finished 11th on the boys side.

“There’s a number of real good teams there, so it’ll be fun to compete against those teams, as well, so we’ll get after it,” Gatch said.

Several Ponies will look to continue their strong starts to the season. Sadie Filius looks to win her fourth straight win in the 300-meter hurdles to start the season. There is also Loy Waid, who is coming off a first-place finish in the 100-meter dash at the Havre Lions Meet. Kyanna Jarvis looks to repeat the success she had at the start of the season at the Cut Bank Invitational where she finished first in both the 100 and high jump.

Gatch believes that his girls relay teams can have more success this season. The 4x100 relay team consisting of Filius, Waid, Tamera O’Leary and Kennedy Hampton looks to win the event in their third straight meet after finishing first in the Glasgow Invitational and Havre Lions Meet. The 4x400 relay team of Filius, Waid, O’Leary and Jarvis also hopes to win it again as they finished first at the Glasgow Invitational.

On the boys side, Gatch hopes that Nolan Lotton can continue his stellar performances this season. He has won the 100 in two straight meets and has won the 200 in all three meets this season. He finished first in the 400 at the Havre Lions Meet and he finished first along with Dylan Young, Hunter Awtrey and Brody Henry in the boys 4x400 relay team at the Glasgow Invitational.

“We’d like to see Nolan get qualified for state this weekend. He’s got to push himself,” Gatch said. “He’s just scratching the surface where he can be at.”

While his runners hope to continue their strong seasons, Gatch hopes his athletes in throwing competitions such as shot put, javelin and discus continue to get better to earn a high finish and score points for the team. Gatch also wants his younger runners to not only beat their own personal times but begin to beat the guys ahead of them.

“We got to continue to develop our athletes to reach their peaks and our goal is to peak them at the right time,” Gatch said.

Gatch has already seen improvement in practice and hopes that it will carry on into this weekend’s meet.

“We keep getting stronger each and every practice,” Gatch said. “Really fun to watch this group of individuals increase their team continuity and get better overall individually and as a whole team.”

The Ponies hit the track this Saturday in Lewistown. And, the annual Cal Wearley Invitational, which was postponed last week, has been rescheduled for April 27 at the Havre Middle School Track.