HHS runs towards the postseason

After an outstanding race like the one it had last weekend at home, the steadily improving Havre High cross country teams are hoping to continue a climb to the top.

Today the Central A Blue Ponies will compete in the Helena Preview Meet in Helena.

The Ponies can expect nearly 40 teams to attend the meet. All of the state's Class AA teamswill make their way to Helena as well as most of the Class A schools and a good chunk of the Class B and C squads from across the state.

Browning, Lewistown, Livingston, Belgrade and Butte Central will compete, and will earn most of the Ponies' attention. But seeing the Class A schools out of the west will also be key for the Ponies, as they don't have too many opportunities to do so before state.

"Coming off of a weekend like we just had, we are just looking forward to keep rolling with it," Havre High head coach Kyle Fisher said. "This is an important meet, it's good to see our conference again as well as those other Class A schools. And it's the course we will be running on at state, it's pretty important to see that."

Today's race will be a little bit different than normal.

It will start the No. 7 runners facing off, followed by the No. 6, No. 5 and so on until the No. 1's face off. For the boys and girls teams, there will be a total of seven races.

And though it's not the format teams are most familiar with, the Ponies are eager to see how their runners match up individually against some of the top talent in the state.

"This will be interesting because our kids are so used to running with each other," Fisher said. "Some pace themselves off of another teammate, so it will be interesting to see how they run when they don't have that. But we are looking forward to it and they should all do well."

No. 1 Katie Christianson, No. 2 Brittanee Korb, No. 3 Trisha Kinsella, No. 4 Shelby O'Neil, No. 5Ashlynn Van Voast, No. 6 Larissa Price and No. 7 Mikell Kinsella will represent the HHS girls. They have made up the varsity team all season long, and should all turn in another solid performance.

For the Pony boys, the lineup is a little different.

No. 1 Kendall Murie, No. 2 Marc Klimas, No. 3 Greg Rhines, No. 4 Dolan Tuss, No. 5 Dillon Seely and No. 6 Chazley Hulett have ran well for the varsity all season long, but No. 7 Desmond Fialkosky will his varsity debut today.

"He is a kid who has worked hard for us all year," Fisher said. "Day in and day out he is coming to practice and working hard, and in the meets he is getting better and better. We are giving him shot on varsity because all the hard work he puts in."

It should be another tough day of competition for the Ponies, but they are prepared, and confident they will compete. They are running on the course they will se at state, and facing a lot of the same kids they will see at the state race. How they compete with the conference as well as the other Class A teams will give the Ponies a real idea of where they are at right now in the season.

"We want to go in and compete with the conference teams as well as the other Class A teams that will be there," Fisher said.

Tonight the Ponies will run in Helena in the Helena Preview Meet. Havre's final regular season meet will be Saturday when the Ponies go to the Browning Invitational.