Home Waters: Pony swimmers host Havre Invite

With only two meets so far this season, the Havre High swim teams are ready to get warmed up for the rest of the year with a meet at home Saturday at the Havre Community Pool.

It will be a small meet with the Blue Ponies only competing against Great Falls and CMR in the Havre Invitational. While the Ponies will swim against these teams, the expectations for competition are not the same as most meets.

"My expectation is for these kids to develop relationships with the other swimmers from Great Falls and CMR," HHS head coach Bill Kilgore said. "We typically always cheer for them because we don't really compete against each other. We swim against each other but the competition is not the same."

Havre is a Class A school while Great Falls and CMR are Class AA schools. Before the meet Saturday, all the teams will meet for dinner in order to build camaraderie. While the Ponies will compete Saturday, it will not be the same level of competition as if the Ponies were swimming against other Class A schools such as Billings Central, Hardin or East Helena.

Heading into the weekend, Kilgore believes his swimmers can have success in events such as the 100-yard butterfly, 100-yard freestyle, 200-yard freestyle and the 200-yard individual medley. He also believes their relay teams can do well in the 200-yard medley relay and the 200-yard freestyle relay.

Many Ponies will try to repeat the success of the Polson Invite to start the season. In that meet, Aiviah Pratt finished first in the girls 100-yard breaststroke and third in the 200-yard intermediate. Conner McKay also swam well with third-place finishes in both the boys 50-yard freestyle and the boys 500-yard freestyle. Mackenzie Dean also had a strong showing in Polson with a second-place finish in the girls 100-yard butterfly. Koby Preputin also swam well taking third in the boys 100-yard backstroke.

Hiram Cammon has had strong showings in both the Polson and Great Falls meets to start the season. In Polson, he took third in the boys 200-yard intermediate and fourth in the boys 100-yard breaststroke. At Great Falls, he took fifth in the boys 50-yard freestyle and sixth in the boys 100-yard breaststroke.

This weekend will be the first of the two meets at home for the Ponies this season. With the Ponies finally getting to stay home and swim in front of friends and family, Kilgore believes his team is excited.

"Anytime we don't travel is fantastic," Kilgore said. "We're really excited to be at home in front of the home crowd."

The meet will begin at noon Saturday at Havre Community Pool.