Blue Ponies return home for Havre Invitational

After starting the season last weekend in Hardin, the Havre High cross country teams return to the Hi-Line to host the Havre Invitational this Saturday. With the Blue Ponies running at Prairie Farms Golf Course this weekend, HHS head coach Danielle Parsons expects some good finishes from her runners.

"It will be a pretty flat and nice course so it'll be a good day for them to be fast," Parsons said. "They can throw it all down there and see what they can really do."

The Ponies will be hosting several teams at the meet this weekend such as Belt, Box Elder, Chinook, Dodson, Fairfield, Fort Benton, Glasgow, Great Falls Central Catholic, Harlem, Hays-Lodge Pole, Hinsdale, Malta, Sunburst, Rocky Boy and Whitewater. Out of all the competition, Parsons expects Glasgow to have some of the best runners this weekend.

The HHS cross country teams will be looking to build off of last weekend's Hardin Invitational. To start the season, the HHS girls team finished third while the HHS boys team took ninth. Several individual Ponies will also look to run well this Saturday.

Ashlyn Ford will continue her freshman year this weekend after taking fifth with a time of 21:08.43 at the Hardin Invitational. Caleb Tomac is coming off a fourth-place finish at the Hardin Invitational, so he will look for another strong performance this weekend. Parsons also looks forward to watching Mason Gregoire run this weekend.

As the Ponies continue their season, they are happy to do it at home at Prairie Farms Golf Course. At the meet, Parsons and the Ponies will have a table where fans and family can write notes for the Ponies' next meet on the road at Lewistown. Along with the notes, Parsons hopes the fans will stay at the meet to cheer on the Ponies.

"We're really excited to compete at home. I would love to have as many members of our community come out," Parsons said. "To get the home advantage one time will be really neat."

Also on Monday, the HHS cross country teams will look to commemorate the 22nd anniversary of 9/11 with a memorial run. Depending on their conditioning, the Ponies will run 3.43 miles to remember the 343 firefighters that lost their lives that day or they will run 9.11 kilometers starting on Beaver Creek Road and finishing the run at the fire station.

Before then, the HHS cross country teams will run in the Havre Invitational at Prairie Farms Golf Course on Saturday starting at 10 a.m. The Ponies will also hold their senior day at 9 a.m. before the races.