Havre track faces Eastern A foes at Glendive Elk's Invitational

With about three weeks left in the regular season, the Havre High track and field teams hope to have their athletes peaking just in time for the postseason. HHS head coach Ryan Gatch hopes that his athletes will use this Saturday’s Glendive Elk’s Invitational to continue getting better. He also hopes they have a strong day at Glendive because that’s where postseason competition will start.

“That’s the host of the divisional track meet, we want to have a good showing,” Gatch said. “We want to compete at a high level and we got a lot of people competing at that level where we want to be at so it’s going to be fun.”

Havre will be one of 19 teams competing at the meet. The Blue Ponies will be competing against Eastern A teams such as Miles City, Glendive, Lewistown and Sidney. Gatch also looks forward to competing against Hardin and Billings Central.

“If you look across the board, Hardin has got some real strong runners, Billings Central’s got some strong runners,” Gatch said. “We’re really looking forward to meeting our Class A opponents.”

Other schools competing in the meet include Baker, Carter County, Circle, Lockwood, Nashua, Plevna, Richardton-Taylor, Richey-Lambert, Custer-Hysham, Savage, Scobey and Wilbaux County.

If the Ponies want to stand out among these teams, they will need another strong day from their top performers. Sadie Filius hopes to have another strong day in the 300-meter hurdles as she has placed either first or second in the event in all six meets this season.

Loy Waid hopes to find more success in the 200-meter sprint after winning the event at the Cal Wearley Memorial Tuesday. Kennedy Hampton hopes to win the 100 for the second straight meet. The girl’s relay teams also look to continue their strong season.

On the boy’s side, Dylan Young will look to win the 1,600 for the third time this season. Gatch believes the key to helping his athletes stay consistent this far into the season is just to keep them healthy

“Keep them healthy. That’s the key,” Gatch said. “Track and field’s a long, long season and everybody’s really excited it just started, but we’re in that mid part of the year where it’s about health, it’s about wellness and it’s about keeping them fresh and the bounce in their step.”

The Ponies will also be competing in their third meet in the span of a week. After competing in the Sidney Invitational last Saturday, they participated in the Cal Wearley Memorial meet Tuesday. In order to keep his team fresh, Gatch gave many of his athletes a day off Wednesday to rest before preparing for this week’s meet.

“That way they get a work out day, day off (Wednesday), recover day and they can come back on Thursday and have a good workout on Friday in pre-meet,” Gatch said. “That’s a key quality to keeping our health and keeping the safety of our students so that they can be out competing in all of our meets.”

The Ponies only have a few more meets this season, so this weekend will be one of their last chances to show what they are capable of. Gatch believes that a strong showing from his athletes would be a strong indicator of how good they are because they will be competing against the best athletes in the Eastern A.

“Have a good showing, represent our school in a real positive fashion,” Gatch said. “It’s going to be a big meet and it’s going to be a great opportunity to compete again so looking forward to it.”

Havre will compete at the Glendive Elk’s Invitational this Saturday.