Erin Lynch ready to lead Blue Pony cross country

They say every year is a new year and that will be especially true for the Havre High cross country team as they will now be led by new head coach Erin Lynch. As she takes over the program, she does not plan on making many changes but, instead, hopes to carry on what the program was already doing.

"(I want to) maintain what the program was doing before and then build upon it and see how far the kids can go this season," Lynch said.

To build the program, Lynch will rely on several runners who are returning this fall. On the boys team, Caleb Tomac, Brody Henry, Josh Currie, Nathan Gregoire and Ethan Durward return to run for the Blue Ponies. On Havre's girls team, Emma Gillen, Clara Haslem and Chloe Shennum will return. Amya Custer will also run this fall.

Many sophomores will run for the Ponies this fall. Mackenzie Dean, Maleigha Fuzesy, Ezra Goldhahn, Jackson Headress, Zack May, Nevaeh Phillips, Caleb Spangler, Ryland Horn and Brooklyn Nelson will compete this fall. Freshmen such as Wyatt Burr, Hailey Gingery, Jayla Meldrum, Katie Messinger and Koby Preputin will join the program this fall.

Throughout this season, the Ponies will compete in several important meets. They open the season this weekend with a meet in Browning where they compete against teams such as Box Elder, Cut Bank, Browning and Shelby. On Sept. 3, they will then compete against Lewistown, Miles City, Hardin, Laurel and Lockwood in the Hardin meet.

The Ponies will then return to Havre for the Havre Invitational Sept. 11. In their lone home meet, they will compete against Box Elder, Cascade, Fort Benton, Plentywood, Rocky Boy, Scobey, Glasgow, Whitewater and Great Falls Central Catholic.

Lynch also looks forward to the Mountain West meet in Missoula Sept. 18. The rest of September will see the Ponies compete in the Glasgow meet, Lockwood 7 of 7 and Fergus Invite. In the month of October, they will stay on the road for the Miles City Invite, Malta Invite and Fall Classic in Hardin. Their season will end with the state tournament in Missoula Oct. 23. In the past few weeks, Lynch has focused on getting her team physically ready for these meets over the next few months.

"Right now we're just establishing base mileage so that we can get into more interval training and work," Lynch said. "But before we do that, I have to have them build to their mileage so that we're running injury free as much as we can."

Lynch took over the HHS cross country program earlier in the month. As an alumni of the program, she hopes to lead the team to success which hopefully starts with her team improving this fall.

"I hope to place at state a little bit higher than the kids did last year," Lynch said. "But ultimately build a program. We're getting more runners every year and just being more competitive and ultimately having fun with that."

The HHS cross country team will open their season with a meet in Browning this Saturday.