Havre High cross country teams take third at Scottie Invitational

After competing in their lone home meet of the season, the Havre High cross country teams were back on the road with the Scottie Invitational in Fort Peck this past Saturday. While the Blue Ponies were missing some talent, both the boys and girls teams finished third in their respective meets.

"I was pretty happy with our performances. We just had another weekend of personal bests for most of our runners," HHS head coach Erin Lynch said. "We had some kids really step it up when they needed to so that was great to see."

The HHS boys team finished third in its meet with 65 points in the meet. Miles City won the boys meet with 44 points while Glasgow came in a close second with 45 points. The HHS girls team scored 72 points to take third in its meet. Miles City scored 55 points to win the girls meet and Glasgow came in second.

After competing at home last weekend, this week's course had some obstacles. The most notable ones were the small cacti at the beginning of the course that would get stuck to runners' shoes. But other than that, the Ponies had little trouble in Fort Peck.

"Beyond that, the weather was nice and cool and the kids were able to really push themselves and push for those big drops in time," Lynch said.

Caleb Tomac did not run for the Ponies this weekend, but several other runners on the boys team picked it up to lead the team to third in its meet. Brody Henry finished fourth in the 5,000-meter race with a personal record of 17:32.1. Zack May finished eighth in the race with a personal record of 18:10.0. Ezra Goldhahn posted a personal record of 19:17.6 to take 16th in the meet.

Mason Gregoire, Dylan Kunz and Vance Burr also placed for the Ponies. Gregoire finished 24th, Kunz finished 35th and Burr finished 46th in the meet.

For the HHS girls team, Hailey Gingery continued her strong start to the season. At the Scottie Invitational, she took fifth with a personal record of 20:17.3. Jayla Meldrum also had a top-10 finish for the Ponies as she took seventh with a personal record of 21:02.1.

The Ponies had several runners in the middle of the pack that helped them place third. Paige Anderson finished 19th in the race while her teammate Clara Haslem came in 20th right behind her. In 24th and 26th for the Ponies were Gracie Shandorf and Hannah Kinsella. Emily Gulbertson took 34th for the Ponies in the race.

With runners like Tomac missing the race, Lynch believes her younger runners stepped up at the Scottie Invitational. Hopefully this experience will help the younger Ponies as they continue trying to improve their times over the course of the rest of the season.

"I was really proud, especially of our boys team. We have a lot of young runners and they're really learning how to race these three-mile races," Lynch said. "They stepped up, they dropped a couple of minutes off their previous personal bests so I was really happy to see that."

The HHS cross country teams will next run in the Great Falls Anaconda Hills meet in Great Falls this Friday.

Boys Individuals

Brody Henry, 4th, 17:32.1; Zack May, 8th, 18:10.0; Ezra Goldhahn, 16th, 19:17.6; Mason Gregoire, 24th, 20:33.1; Dylan Kunz, 35th, 21:49.3; Vance Burr, 46th, 23:00.0;

Girls Individuals

Hailey Gingery, 5th, 20:17.3; Jayla Meldrum, 7th, 21:02.1; Paige Anderson, 19th, 22:54.9; Clara Haslem, 20th, 23:07.0; Gracie Shandorf, 24th, 23:21.1; Hannah Kinsella, 26th, 23:21.3; Emily Gulbertson, 34th, 24:26.9.