Track and field looks to improve at Sidney Invitational

With the halfway point of the season coming up, the Havre High track and field teams look for improvement, so they will be performing at their best when the postseason starts in a few weeks. The Blue Ponies will get another chance to get better as they compete at the Sidney Invitational this Saturday.

"We want to be able to make improvements and now it's time to start focusing in on the details when it comes to conference, divisional and state tournaments coming up in a short three weeks," HHS head coach Ryan Gatch said.

At the meet, Havre will be competing against 24 other teams. Some of these schools come from the Eastern A and it will be the first time Havre has competed against some of them this season. The schools include Miles City, Glendive, Lewistown and Sidney. The meet should give the Ponies a chance to measure themselves against opponents they will face in the postseason.

Havre will compete against non-conference opponents as well. At the meet, they will compete against Bainville, Baker, Brockton, Carter County, Circle, Fairview, Frazer, Froid-Medicine Lake, Garfield County, Glasgow, Hinsdale, Plentywood, Plevna, Poplar, Richey-Lambert, Rosebud, Scobey, Terry, Wibaux County and Wolf Point.

"There's a bunch of tough teams there," Gatch said. "It's going to be a lot of fun to get over there and see all the different teams that are over there because we're going to see a bunch of different teams that we haven't seen the last three weeks."

One event that the Ponies should have a chance to win is the girl's 4x100 relay. The team of Sadie Filius, Loy Waid, Kennedy Hampton and Tamera O'Leary have won the event in three straight meets, so they will be looking to win it again. They also look to beat their personal record as their best time is currently second-best in the state, so they will want to catch up and put distance between them and other schools.

"We're looking to make marked improvements," Gatch said. "We're all clumped together so it's going to be a fun exciting race."

Havre will also have plenty of athletes on the girls side who can have success this weekend in individual events. Filius has had a strong season in the 300-meter hurdles as she won the event in her first three meets and finished second in her last meet.

Jarvis has had success in the several events this season. In the first meet, Jarvis won the 100-meter dash and she finished second in the event in two other meets. She has also won the high jump twice this season. Gatch believes that his girls team is full of many athletes who can have success this season, and he looks forward to seeing how they do against the other schools.

"We have a number of high-level competitors where we want to fine tune and compete against the best teams out there," Gatch said.

The Ponies have several athletes on their boys team who can have success this season. Nolan Lotton looks to continue his strong performance in the 100 because he has won the event in three straight meets. He has also won the 200 in all four meets this season. Dylan Young is coming off a win in the 1,600 last week, and Eli Cloninger has a win in the triple jump this season.

After this weekend's meet, the Ponies' season will be halfway over. With just a few weeks left before the postseason, Gatch believes his athletes are coming along to be peaking at the right time.

"We're coming along awesome," Gatch said. "We're about ready to hit fast gear right now and so we're about to get going here. We got four meets in two weeks, and they're all big and important meets."

Unlike most of their meets on the road, the Ponies will head over the night before and stay in a hotel. That means they will not have to wake up early as they have for other road meets this season. Gatch believes that this, along with a lack of other priorities for his athletes, will help them focus and perform strong.

"No excuse of 'I got to wake up at 4 a.m.,' no excuse of prom going on," Gatch said. "We're in the bus together, we're in the same room together, we're all in this together when we go over to Sidney, and then that way they're able to go out and compete as a team."

The Ponies will hit the track this Saturday at the Sidney Invitational.