Chris Peterson Havre Daily News cpeterson@havredailynews.com
After weeks of terrible weather, the temperature finally rose, the snow withered away and the clouds all cleared out, giving the Havre High track team and new head coach Roger Larson a chance to compete for the first time this season as the Blue Ponies played host to the Havre Invitational track meet on Saturday at the HMS track. Thanks to a tremendous all-around team effort the Havre High boys team was able to come away with first-place in their own meet by racking up a total of 153 points, which was well ahead of second-place finisher Glasgow, which only managed to score 76 points. Browning and Malta each ended up in a tie for third place with 48 points. "I'm really excited that our kids fi- nally got to get out there and compete against some actual competition instead of just competing against themselves in practice,” Larson said. “I am really proud of our boys, they did a great job and we got points from just about every kind of event. We score in sprints, distance, jumps, hurdles and throws. Overall, it was just a tremendous team effort." Jason Mudrow had arguably the best day out of all the HHS boys, as he won the 110-meter hurdles with a time of 15.34 to go along with a third-place finishes in the 100-meter dash and the high jump. Andy Keim also had a solid day finishing second in both the 1600 and 3200 meters, while Kyle Finneman came in second in the 100 and fourth in the javelin. Other big-time contributors for Havre included senior thrower Robert The Boy, who won the discus and the javelin, while junior Michael Hickman, finished second in the triple jump and long jump. Jack Teske also performed well by winning the triple jump, finishing third in the long jump and fourth in the high jump. “I think that Jason had a great meet,” Larson said. “But we had a lot of other kids that stepped up too like Robert, Kyle, Michael, John and Jack.” Unfortunately, the Havre High girls team didn’t have the same success on Saturday. The Ponies ended up in fourth place with only 44 points behind first-place Glasgow, which finished with 142 points, followed by Big Sandy in second with 102 points and Malta in third with 99 points. The Havre girls were led by senior Hanna Wells and sophomore Madison Ruff. Wells finished third in the 300 hurdles as well as fifth in the 100 hurdles. Wells was also a key component in the Havre relay teams, including the 1600-meter relay team that finished second and the 400-meter relay team that notched a fifth-place finish. Meanwhile, Ruff also had a stellar day, finishing second in the high jump and sixth in the javelin. Other Havre girls who placed in the meet, included Andrea Mack, who finished fourth in the pole vault, Sarah Blessum, who came in fourth in the 400-meter dash, as well as Stacey Sheppard, who was fifth in the 100-meter dash, Amanda Hedstrom, who finished sixth in the 1600-meter run and Karla Hellegaard, who was fifth in the long jump. “I think that for our first meet we I saw a lot of good things,” Larson said. “We did some good things, but there are also some things that we still need work on, but all things considered, it was a good first meet.” Other athletes from along the Hi- Line who performed well at the Havre Invitational included Kourtney Danreuther of Big Sandy, who won the 200-meter dash, the 100 hurdles, the 300 hurdles and the long jump to go along with a second-place finish in the 100-meter dash. Other Big Sandy girls who did well at the meet were Amber Amsbaugh, who took home individual titles in both the high jump and the long jump, as well as junior Laci Keller, who won an individual title in the discus. Natasha Dyrland of North Star took home an individual title of her own in the javelin, while the best performance from a Hi-Line boy came from Big Sandy’s Darin Ray, who was second in the 800-meter run. Patrick Louvar of Big Sandy also had a good performance with a second-place finish in the 200-meter dash and a fourth-place finish in the 100-meter dash. The Blue Ponies will continue their season with plenty of action this week. On Tuesday, HHS will host Great Falls High in a dual at the HMS track. Then on Saturday, the Blue Pony girls will be at a meet in Great Falls, while the HHS boys travel to Belgrade.
