Pony harriers reach the starting line

After almost a month of practice, the Havre High cross country teams will finally get a chance to test themselves against outside competition as they head to the Cut Bank Time Trials today for the first meet of the season.

The meet, which serves as a time trial and does not keep team scores, will give the Ponies a chance to gauge themselves against a number of schools from all classifications, including Browning and both Great Falls High and CMR.

For Havre, the meet will have added significance as HHS head coach Darci Heninger uses it to determine her varsity runners for the remainder of the season.

"There are a mix of classes going there, so there will be some good competition," Heninger said. "And because it's a time trial it gives your team a good idea of where they are at against some of the teams they will be competing against."

On the girls side, the Ponies will be led by Morgan Mazurkiewicz, Tori Mazurkiewicz, Rachel David and Emily Brurud, who will all look to lock up varsity spots against with a strong showing in Cut Bank.

"I know that Morgan and Rachel should place pretty high," Heninger said. "They have been very good at practice and they have been working really hard. The top seven girls so far at practice have been really close together, so I think it will be pretty competitive for who gets the varsity spots."

Other HHS girls that will be running for a spot on the varsity squad are Meggie Zook, Kinnah Kinsella, Brooke Lavalley, Rainey Stoner, Alara Vogel, Marca Herron, Lainee Van Voast, Megan Alexander, Maya Reed and Caitlyn Acuff.

The Pony boys also return a wealth of experience from a year ago but will need to raise their game if they are going to place highly at the Class A state meet due to the high level of competition in the boy's ranks in Class A cross country.

Leading the way for the HHS boys will be Brock Ross, Sundance Lodge, Ethan Smith, Cameron Knapton and Dylan Smith. Brandon Robertson is also back this season but has not participated in enough practices to compete in Cut Bank.

Other boys with a chance at qualifying to run varsity this season include Jaime Lieberg, Bakit Kilgore, Austin Jones, Chris Steinmetz and Ryan Stewart.

"I think the boys will be competitive," Heninger said. "They should do pretty well overall, it is always harder because the competition is so hard. So they will have to want it pretty bad and will have to work pretty hard if they want to place."

At this point in the season, Heninger is not concerned about pack times, especially because she does not know for sure who her varsity runners will be. But the Cut Bank course will give her an opportunity to evaluate her runners on how they navigate the hills, which is an important part of cross country running.

"The course itself is pretty tough," Heninger said. "There are a lot of hills, gradual hills and then there is one steep hill at the start and toward the finish. We have been working on hills and the hills are always tough no matter where you're at. So hills are a big thing we will see how we do with those."

After Havre determines who will run varsity for both the boys and girls teams today in Cut Bank, the Ponies will travel to Malta next week for their first team meet of the season. The action will get started today in Cut Bank at 3:20.