HHS harriers off and running

While all the other Havre High athletic teams got their season underway earlier, the Havre High cross country got into the competitive spirit last Friday at the Cut Bank Time Trials.

The annual meet, which does not track team scores, is the annual start to the season for the Blue Ponies, who got some solid performances from the both the boys and girls teams. On the girls side of things, Kadia Miller was not in the lineup for HHS, however, the Pony girls had six girls finish in the top 100, including Hannah Haslem, who finished 32nd for HHS with a time of 23:14. Next up for the HHS girls was Tamera O’Leary, who was 52nd (24:16), followed by Emma Gillen (62nd, 24:34), Grace Loftus (71st, 24:52), Lilly Taly (93rd, 25:52) and Kate Wirtzberger (96th, 26:04). Rhoda Peterson was the No. 7 runner for the Ponies, finishing 108th with a time of 26:51. The other Havre girls who competed were Aliviah Pratt (119, 27:54), Savannah Stewart (128, 29:04), Hannah Pratt (136, 29:30) and Marissa Ratliff (143, 30:50).

“On the girls side we had a great performance from a newcomer to our team, Hannah Haslem,” HHS head coach Josh Holt said. “Hannah comes to us from Colstrip and put together a great performance. I look forward to watching Hannah improve week to week. Tamera O’Leary, Grace Loftus, Lilly Taly and Rhoda Peterson had solid performances as well. Emma Gillen, a freshman this year had an exceptional performance in her first race of her high school career. Katie Wirtzberger is also new to the program Katie had a strong finish in her first race and I look forward to watching Katie improving week to week.”

The Havre boys also sent 16 runners to Cut Bank and the top finisher was senior Jakob Keller, who placed 30th with a time of 18:42. Dylan Young was second for Havre, getting 52nd with a time of 19:19 and close behind, finishing in 54th was Noah Azure (19:29). Cameron Pleninger (69tth, 19:51) and Sidney Moffitt (85th, 20:24) also finished in the top 100.

The other finishers for the Havre boys team included Kendell Pleninger (114, 21:09), Joshua Williams (118, 21:19), Ethan Durward (119, 21:22), Torek Swenson (120, 21:24), Ammon Lines (151, 22:40), Christian Mathis (152, 22:41), Garrett Parsons (156, 22:51), Riley Pleninger (158, 22:53), Tysen Sangrey (188, 25:29), Hiram Cammon (189, 25:55) and Austin Ratliff (200th, 29:40).

“We had a great performance from Jakob Keller, Dylan Young, Noah Azure and Cameron Pleninger,” Holt said. “This group of boys have been running together for a few years now. We also had some solid performances from Sidney Moffitt, Kendall Pleninger, Joshua Williams and Ethan Durward. These boys are putting in hard work and making great strides. I hope to see great things from the Pleninger brothers in the coming weeks and I’m looking forward to watching this group of boys run next week in Malta.”

Both Havre teams will be in action this Saturday in Malta. Things will get underway at 10 a.m.