Ponies on the starting block

It’s getting cold outside. But the water is warm inside the Havre Community Pool, and that means it’s time for another season of Havre High swimming.

The Blue Ponies start the new season under the direction of second-year head coach Jill Cammon, and they once again have high hopes and lofty goals. And that new year starts with Saturday’s Havre Invitational.

The Havre Invite will be a double-double meet with the Blue Ponies going head-to-head with Class AA rivals Great Falls High and CMR. The competition will be fierce right out of the blocks, but Cammon said her teams will be up for the challenge.

“We have a great group of swimmers,” Cammon said. “They work hard and they are so much fun to be around. They love to compete, and I really enjoy coaching them.”

Cammon led the Blue Pony girls to a second-place finish in Class A at the state meet a year ago, and she returns a strong group of swimmers this season. Meanwhile, the HHS boys finished third as a very young team last season. And of course, both teams will have to compete with Class A stalwart Billings Central for hardware this season. Hardin is also a strong team as usual, while teams like Bigfork and Whitefish will be on the rise.

At the state meet, Havre and the rest of Class A race against the AA’s in individual races, but Class A has its own trophy. And a trophy is what the Pony girls are gunning for this season.

“The girls look strong,” Cammon said. “We lost some good swimmers from last year, but we have a lot of returning upperclassmen. And we have some girls who fought injuries last year, and they’re healthy this season. And we have a lot of girls who are strong in different events. So I think we’re a really well-rounded team this season.

“Billings Central is still strong,” she continued. “But I think we can compete with them. I think we have the potential to do really well at the Class A level this season.”

Leading the way for the talented Ponies is junior Lita Cammon, who can do it all. Cammon placed 11th in the 50-meter freestyle finals a year ago, and this season, she’ll swim freestyle, the IM and the butterfly. Junior Aubri McCann is an outstanding breaststroker, who will also star in the freestyle events, while junior Jackie Martin is outstanding in the fly.

HHS also has a strong contingent of seniors. Hannah Pepprock is outstanding in the breaststroke and long distance races, while Lieza Reighard swims the freestyle and the fly. Jade Korb and Carleigh Rennick round out HHS’s senior leaders, while junior Alara Vogel, who swims the free and the IM also has a wealth of varsity experience.

The deep Pony girls team, which will also excel in all three relay races, also has juniors Hailee Kilgore and Celeste Luna, and newcomers Jillian Reighard, Jessica Otto and Ameila Miller.

On the boys side, Havre’s numbers are down, and from an experience standpoint, the Ponies will be young. But Cammon is excited about her returning swimmers, many of whom are just sophomores.

“The numbers are low for the boys,” she said. “But we have Ben Seigel and he’s looking really strong. And we have a great group of kids who gained a lot of experience last season. We have enough to fill a full team. We wish we had a few more out for the team, but the boys that are swimming will compete hard and they’ll get stronger and stronger as the season goes on.”

Seigel leads the way for HHS, swimming the freestyle events. Newcomer Jamie Lieberg is the only other Pony senior, while the rest of the squad is made up of returning sophomores. Jimmy May will swim freestyle, while Zach Barnes swims the free and the fly. Shandon Oberquell returns to swim the breaststroke and the free, while Clayton Twombly and Logan Gardner both swim the free and the backstroke.

As for the upcoming season, the Ponies will take it step by step. Right now, as Havre swims the early meets on their tough schedule, against mostly AA competition, including Saturday’s Havre Invite, Cammon says her teams are working on building up their endurance, and that eventually, they will fine tune their techniques and their speed. And overall, she’s excited and optimistic about the next two months in the pool.

“Right now, we’re working on our distance and endurance,” she said. “So that eventually we can focus on our technique and our speed. And then we can fine tune things for the end of the season.”

Havre’s schedule will certainly allow for the fine tuning. Havre will go head-to-head with the rest of Class A at next month’s Class A Invite in Hardin, and the Ponies take trips to Great Falls, Missoula and Helena. And it all culminates with the 2015 Montana State Swimming Championships, which will be held Feb. 13-14 in Missoula.

“I am very excited,” Cammon said. “This is a great bunch of kids. They work hard and they leave it all in the pool every day. And they’re excited. They’re ready to go.”

The 2014 Havre Invitational will get underway at 12 p.m. Saturday at the Havre Community Pool.