Blue Pony cross country runs at Lockwood 7 on 7

Through the first few weeks of their season, the Havre High cross country teams ran in normal meets where the boys all ran in one race and the girls all ran in one. This past Saturday at the Lockwood 7 on 7, the Blue Pony runners competed across 14 different races, seven for the boys and seven for the girls. The teams at the race had their No. 1 runners race each other. They then had their No. 2 runners race each other, their No. three runners race each other and so on. Even though the Ponies ran on a tough course, HHS head coach Erin Lynch believes her runners ran well.

“We had some really good performances. We didn't have any personal records on this course, but I did have a few athletes who were pretty darn close,” Lynch said. “They were moving at a pretty clipping rate in comparison to how they’ve been moving in the past weeks along the course so I was really happy to see that.”

Unfortunately, Havre’s No. 1 runner Caleb Tomac was under the weather so he did not run this weekend. Junior Brody Henry ran as the Ponies’ No. 2 runner at Lockwood. In a race of 15 runners, Henry finished tenth with a time of 21:10.8. Nathan Adams of Manhattan Christian took first in that race with a time of 17:38.69.

Sophomore Zack May ran in the No. 3 race where he finished eighth with a time of 20:26.04. Tayjon Joe of Hardin took first in that race with a time of 17:57.59. In the No. 4 race, sophomore Carter Spangler took 11th with a time of 24:34.90. Carter VanDyken of Manhattan Christian finished with a time of 19:17.03 to take first in the No. 5 race. In the No. 6 race, Joshua Currie finished fifth with a time of 21:24.62. Caleb Mark of Hardin finished with a time of 19:41.50 to take first in that race.

In the girls No. 1 race, Hailey Gingery ran for the Ponies where she finished 11th with a time of 23:43.85. Mariah Aragon of Hardin took first in that race with a time of 20:41.37. In the No. 2 race, Emma Gillen placed eighth with a time of 26:25.49. Glasgow’s Tanae Baker took first with a time of 22:19.56.

Freshman Jayla Meldrum finished 12th in the No. 3 race with a time of 27:02.57. In first was Dierra Takes Enemy of Hardin with a time of 21:56.04. In the No. 4 race, Maleigha Fuzesy finished 10th with a time of 28:29.20. Hardin again saw one of their runners take first as Victoria Takes Enemy took first with a time of 23:47.26.

Sophomore Neveah Philips took 10th in the No. 5 race with a time of 28:26.34. In the No. 6 meet, Clara Haslem took fourth with a time of 27:19.20. Junior Chloe Shennum took fourth in the No. 7 race with a time of 28:57.16.

The runners had to deal with a tough course, mostly a steep hill that they had to climb up. The Ponies had to deal with other adversity throughout the day. During her race, Fuzesy had to ditch her shoes because they were hurting and she finished the race barefoot. Shennum was misdirected during her race which resulted in her running farther than needed. Lynch believes that the adversity that her team saw Saturday will show to her which runners want to compete this fall.

“I feel like this particular course separated a lot of kids. The kids that are just kind of there from the kids that really want to be there,” Lynch said. “The kids that really want to be there, they’re the ones that looked at that hill and just went ‘I’m going to do it.’”

The HHS cross country teams will next compete in the Fergus Invite in Lewistown on Tuesday.