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Havre High harriers run the Central A

All season long, the Havre High cross country teams have been working and practicing to run at divisionals and state. And finally, the wait for the Blue Ponies’ biggest meet of the season is over.

The Ponies will compete against the likes of Lewistown, Belgrade, Livingston and Browning this Saturday, when they participate in the Central A Divisional meet in Lewistown.

While the results of the divisional meet do not determine who runs at state, HHS definitely wants to come away with some hardware, particularly with the Pony girls coming into the meet as the defending champions.

“We have been talking about it all week,” HHS head coach Darci Heninger said about the importance of divisionals. “We have been talking about all of the things that we need to do. Right now, both of our teams would be running about fourth place and that we need to close our pack time if we want to place.”

The Pony girls, who had a number of runners place highly a year ago, will be paced by Rachel David and Morgan Mazurkiewicz, who have each placed in the Top 10 in multiple meets this season.

Last season at divisionals, Mazurkiewicz and David both place high, finishing sixth and eighth, respectively, and according to Heninger each has a strong chance of duplicating that feat this weekend.

“I think that both Rachel and Morgan have a chance to be Top 10 at divsionals,” Heninger said. “They run pretty smart races, and I told them both they have to focus on their form and the hills. But if they use the hills and are smart, they can both do really well.”

The rest of the varsity runners for the HHS girls include Tori Mazurkiewicz, Rainey Stoner, Marca Herron, Maya Reed and Meggie Zook.

“The girls feel a little bit of pressure going in,” Heninger said. “Going in as the defending champion can be tough sometimes. So I just told them to work really hard and run a smart race to try and defend that trophy. And if we can do that it would be awesome.”

On the boys side of things, HHS will be led by Brandon Robertson, who has been the team’s top runner and will be the Ponies’ best chance at having an individual finish in the Top 10. Last year at divisionals, Robertson finished 12th.

“If Brandon continues to run like he has been, I have no doubt he will place highly at divisionals,” Heninger said. “He has been improving every week and been practicing really hard. So if he continues do that this weekend, like he has every week, I think he can place.”

Robertson isn’t the only veteran running at divisonals for the Pony boys as Sundance Lodge, who finished at No. 13 overall and Brock Ross, who finished at No. 16 overall last season, will be among the seven varsity runners for Havre.

Dylan Stewart, who finished 27th and Cameron Knapton, who finished 35th a year ago, also have previous experience running at divisionals. Rounding out the varsity roster for the boys this week will be Austin Jones and Jaime Lieberg.

“If the boys can improve their pack time and close the gap a little bit I think they can place,” Heninger said. “They just have to be smart with how they run their race. It’s harder for the boys because they tend to run harder in the beginning and it drains their energy at the end.” One advantage the Ponies will have is that they have already run at the Lewistown course once this season, so when the race rolls around, HHS will be familiar will the course.

“I think it gives us a little bit of an advantage because we know the course,” Heninger said. “But it just depends on the race and making sure that we run a smart race.”

The action at the Central A Divisional meet will get started this Saturday in Lewistown at 10 a.m. The Ponies move on to the Class A state meet Oct. 25 in Helena.

 

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