Blue Pony girls finish third at home

Havre High's Sammy Evans (middle) races down the track in the girls 100-meter final of the Central A Divisional track meet Friday in Havre. The HHS girls finished third overall and will send six individuals and two relay teams to this weekend's Class A state meet in Bozeman.

The Havre High girls track and field team turned in a lot of good marks and times, but the Blue Ponies didn't get the production where they needed it to truly stay competitive.

Friday and Saturday, the Central A Ponies hosted the Central A divisional track meet at the Havre middle school track. All the top divisional talent was in attendance, giving the Ponies a true two-day test. The Belgrade Panthers finished No. 1 with 182 points, while the Lewistown Golden Eagles finished No. 2 with 170. The Ponies took third with 75, barley edging out the Livingston Rangers who finished with 72. Browning finished with just 18 team points.

"With the depth of Belgrade and Lewistown we knew going into divisionals that the girls would not be able to compete for the team title," Havre High head coach Trevor VanCampen said. "But we have an impressive group of girls and I know that they will compete hard at state, leaving everything they have on the track."

Though they were out of contention for a divisional trophy, the Pony girls did spread their scoring across the board, scoring points in 11 different events.

Sammy Evans helped the Ponies with points in four of those events. Evans took second place in both the 100-meter and 200-meter sprints. Evans ran the 100 in a time of 13.09 and ran the 200 in a time of 27.05. Evans also took third in the long jump (16-9) and took first in the triple jump with a leap of 34-10. Using the newly added qualifying standards, Evans chose not to compete in the high jump, saving her legs for the remainder of her events and the state meet. Evans has cleared as high as 5-4 this season in the high jump.

But Evans was just one of four girls that placed in the top five and qualified for state.

"I think we just lacked the big numbers that the other teams (Belgrade and Lewistown) had," Evans said. "But we still competed hard and really stepped up to the plate. I think that individually we all did awesome."

Lacey Waid also helped lead the way with a dominating performance in the pole vault. Waid cleared 9-6, tying a school record. Ashlynn VanVoast and Peyton Filius also placed in two events each. VanVoast finished sixth in the 400 (1:05.72) and second in the 800 with a time of 2:28.17. And Filius finished the 800 in fourth (2:28.71) and finished the 1600 in second with a time of 5:46.0.

The 400 relay team also placed fourth (54.94), while the 1600 relay team took third (4:29.8). Jennifer Nordgulen also took sixth in the triple jump (32-2) and Neya Bischoff took sixth in the javelin (95-7).

"The girls competed extremely well," VanCampen said. "They were able to do as well as they did with only four girls placing in individual events (in the top five). Six girls will be going to state, four in individual events and two for the relays. I feel the four girls that made it to state have earned it as they have all worked on improving all year.

The HHS girls needed a big day to take on the Panthers and Eagles at the divisional meet, but didn't have the numbers to match up. They are in a similar boat with the HHS boys, as they may not have the numbers to compete for a team title at state, but will be in the hunt for several individual titles.

The Ponies, along side the rest of the top Class A talent will compete at the state meet this weekend in Bozeman.The Class A state meet for both boys and girls runs this Friday and Saturday at Bozeman High School.

Blue Pony Ashlynn Van Voast competes in the 300 hurdles at this weekend's Central A track meet in Havre.