Havre track teams to host triangular

It’s been another busy time for the Havre High track teams and it won’t slow down until after this weekend, when both Blue Pony teams will be hosting the Havre Invitational, a triangular track meet that also includes Malta and North Star.

The meet will also serve as a senior day for all the seniors on both Havre track teams. There will be a ceremony to honor all the senior athletes before the meet gets underway at the Havre Middle School track at 11 a.m.

“This year we will have something for the seniors,” HHS head coach John Ita said. “But as far as the meet, we aren’t really looking for a whole lot from our kids. For some of them, it will be the fourth time competing in seven days. So we have a lot of tired legs out there. But it’s another chance to get some competition. Malta and North Star are both good teams. They have good kids and they compete really hard, so it should be a fun meet.”

With the Ponies in Great Falls last Saturday for the Belt-Fairfield meet and then in Glasgow Tuesday for the North/East Top 10, HHS has been busy. And with some key freshman competing in a freshman meet in Great Falls Thursday, Ita said he will be cautious, but will give his team one last chance to compete before the final training push for divisionals.

“We really do a couple strong weeks of training before divisionals,” Ita said. “It’s almost like a boot camp for us. So this will give us one last chance to compete and then we will take a week off from competition so we can train and get ready for divisionals.”

Yet, Ita did say that the meet would be important for all the field events, such as the discus, shot put, javelin and all the jumping events.

“The thing about the field events is that competition really pushes you to get better and improve,” Ita said. “We can work on technique in practice and we can do all that stuff, but it’s not the same as competition. So this will be an important meet for the throwers and the jumpers and the pole vaulters. Hopefully, we will have good weather.”

Another focus for Havre is going to be its relay teams. Ita said the coaching staff has tried to finalize those spots in recent weeks and this weekend, it will give those relay teams a chance to mesh together even more.

“We had our girls team run in the Top 10 meet and we qualified for state,” Ita said. “But we think we can get them down to 50.3 in the long relay and that’s pretty competitive in the state for Class A. So it’s going to be an important meet for our relay teams as well, just working on timing and different things like

that. So that will give those relay teams one more chance to do that in a live track meet.”

With North Star prepping for the District 9C track meet, which will take place in Havre next week and Malta also with divisionals on the horizon, the atmosphere should be both competitive and exciting.

The Ponies may be taking it easy with some of their athletes but most of them should be participating.

The girls team will be led by hurdlers Logan Huebsch and Ireland Coyne, as well as a slew of talented jumpers that includes Jessa Chvilicek, Caitlyn Terry, Amelia Beard and Katie Wirtzberger. Loni Waid is another key contributor in the pole vault, while Wirtzberger and fellow freshman Tayler Marinkovich are strong in the sprints.

In the throwing events, the Pony girls will look for a big day from Kristen Nash in the discus, as well as from Jordan Keith in the other throwing events.

As far as the boys team is concerned, the most high-profile senior is Jacob LaBrie, who will run the 400 and also run in the 1,600 relay. HHS will also look for good performances from distance runners Austin Jones, Jakob Keller and Andrew VandenBos. Martin Wilkie and Mason Rismon will also be competing in the pole vault. Wilkie, Ethan Roberts and Cole Watson are also threats to score points in the sprinting events.

“North Star has their district meet coming up and Malta and us both have divisionals, so it should be a fun meet,” Ita said. “And it will be good just to give our kids that one last chance to compete again before divisionals. You can practice all you want but you just can't duplicate competition and how it can really push you to that next level, particularly in those field events. So that is what we will be looking for out of the kids before we really start our last training for divisionals.”

The Havre Triangular will get underway at the Havre Middle School track at 11 a.m. Saturday.