HHS golfers play tough teams, courses in Glendive, Sidney

The final stretch of holes is here for the Havre High golf teams. And the mad dash to the state tournament started this past week with a pair of 18-hole tournaments against Eastern A rivals.

Havre was in Glendive for the nine-team Glendive Invitational Thursday, while the Blue Ponies traveled to the 10-team Sidney Invite Friday.

“This is the start of the busy portion of our season,” HHS head coach George Ferguson said. “We have four tough tournaments in a two-week stretch and their long road trips. So I thought the kids handled it well. They all played good golf at times. And that’s the goal, to just play as well as we can and keep getting ourselves ready for the postseason.”

In Glendive, the Havre boys placed second behind champion Laurel. Senior Theron Peterson paced the Ponies with an 84, which tied him for fourth place, while Kale Reno shot 87 and Caleb Spangler finished with an 88. Shane Patacsil also did well in his first varsity tourney, shooting a 93, while Reid Kato rounded out the scoring for the HHS boys.

On the girls side in Glendive, Havre finished fourth overall, with Shea Weber recording a career-best 100. Katharine Greenwood shot 111, while Callie Bebee was at 121 and Alexa LaBrie shot 128. Tierra Parker rounded out the scoring for the Ponies.

After Glendive, Havre moved up the road to Sidney for the Sidney Invite, which ended up being a preview of the upcoming Eastern A Divisional.

In Sidney, the Pony boys finished sixth, but were just three strokes out of fourth, with Spangler leading HHS with an 87, followed by Peterson at 90, Reno at 91 and Patacsil at 98. Kato shot 102 to complete the HHS lineup. The Pony girls once again finished fourth, led by another 100 from Reber. Bebee finished at 114, while Greenwood shot 117, LaBrie 122 and Parker 129.

“Our girls did great in Sidney,” Ferguson said. “They continue to show so much improvement, so that’s exciting. Our boys struggled a bit, but also, for all of our kids, it was a great experience because we know what we need to do, we know what we need to work on and what it will take to do well in Sidney when we get back there for divisionals. So I’m pleased with the trip. Our kids are doing great.”

The Ponies will close out the regular season with two more tournaments against the rest of the Eastern A. On Thursday, Havre will attend the Billings Central Invitational, before heading to the Laurel Invite on Friday.