Havre High cross country looking to improve in Malta

As the postseason fast approaches, the Havre High cross country teams look to begin peaking over the next few meets. The Blue Ponies' next opportunity to improve their times will come at the Malta Invite this Saturday.

"Going into the weekend, we are looking to do pretty well and drop our times even more than we already have this season," HHS head coach Erin Lynch said. "Individually, every kid is looking to PR this weekend."

Unlike recent meets, the Malta Invite will be a much smaller affair with only 14 schools competing this weekend. On the boys' side, Lynch expects Glasgow to be Havre's toughest opponent. On the girls' side, Lynch has her eyes on Poplar. Other schools that will compete this weekend include Box Elder, Circle, Dodson, Fairview, Hays-Lodge Pole, Malta, Nashua, Frazer, Harlem, Rocky Boy and Whitewater. Despite all the competition, Lynch has confidence in her runners.

"There are a couple of teams that are there that could pose some challenges for us," Lynch said. "If we run our races right, we should be able to be competitive."

Several Ponies will look to continue their strong seasons this weekend. Caleb Tomac will try to win his fourth meet of the season this weekend. He is also coming off the Custer County Invitational that he finished with a personal-best time of 16:31.6. Hailey Gingery will also try to improve on her personal best of 20:49.9 that she set in Miles City last weekend.

The HHS harriers will run at the Malta Golf Course this weekend. The course will be much flatter than previous meets, so Lynch expects her team to run well and post faster times. In the past few weeks, Lynch feels like her runners have come together to help each other perform at their best. With only a few meets left before the postseason, Lynch and her runners have also begun evaluating their competition to see what times they need to achieve.

"We've had our team really come together in the last few weeks and set some goals and be very supportive and encouraging of each other," Lynch said. "Our kids have also been looking at our competition. We've been looking at who we're coming up against and where we should be and who we should target as far as other runners."

HHS cross country will compete in the Malta Invite this Saturday.