Running Home: HHS harriers host Havre Invite on Saturday

When it comes to the Havre High cross country teams, there are always a few meets that stand out and the annual Havre Invitational is one of them.

Both Blue Pony teams will be hosting the meet Saturday on the campus of Montana State University-Northern, which is where the course for the competition begins and ends. The action will get underway Saturday at 10 a.m.

“The kids are excited for Saturday,” HHS head coach Josh Holt said. “It’s a meet that they always look forward to. It’s fun to get to be at home so it’s definitely one we are looking forward to.”

One runner who will be part of the action Saturday for the Pony girls is sophomore Tamera O’Leary, who joined the cross country team last season as a freshman. And soon after, she said she just happened to fall in love with the sport and with running.

“At first, I didn’t really think I would like it,” O’Leary said, “but I really like staying fit and staying in shape. That feels good, and I was going to do it to train for track and my other sports, and I ended up really liking it and now it’s my favorite sport.”

Last season, O’Leary was part of a Havre girls team that won the Havre Invite. The Ponies finished first with 52 points after getting top-10 finishes from Kadia Miller, Kaylee Nystrom and O’Leary, who finished ninth with a time of 22:55. This time around, HHS will look to defend its title against 15 teams including Browning, Lewistown, Harlem, Glasgow and Malta. As an individual, O’Leary said she had a specific time in mind.

“I would like to get around 20:00 minutes,” O’Leary said. “But really my goal is to get to 19 (minutes) and something. I just want to get into the 19s at some point.”

While O’Leary started last season with little experience running cross country, she quickly adapted to the sport. She immediately became one of the top performers on the varsity team and when the Ponies ran at the Class A state meet, she was their third-best finisher, notching 32nd with a time of 21:51.

“I learned a lot last year,” O’Leary said. “I think a big thing was just learning how to pace myself in races. I started out too fast and I didn’t have very good form. But I did a lot better than I thought I would and that just really made me want to push myself harder.”

Joining O’Leary in the meet Saturday on the girls side will be Miller, Hannah Haslem, Emma Gillen, Grace Loftus, Lilly Taly and Aliviah Pratty.

In the boys competition, the Havre boys will also be trying to win another team title at the Havre Invite after winning the meet last season. The Ponies will be led by Jakob Keller, a senior who finished sixth at the MSU-N course last season. In addition to Keller, Havre will run Dylan Young, Cameron Pleninger, Noah Azure, Joshua Williams, Sidney Moffitt and Sergio Tamayo”

Both teams prepared for the meet by running the course this week, a course that has some hills but according to Holt, should offer up some good times.

“Our course isn’t as hard as some others,” Holt said. “It does have some hills, but we should see some good times. It’s also going to be an advantage for us a little bit just because we run it so often, so we know it.”

The Havre Invitational will get underway Saturday morning at 10 a.m., on the campus of MSU-Northern. The varsity races begin with the boys at 12:20 p.m. and the girls at 1 p.m. The Ponies will then head to Missoula next weeked for the Mountain West Classic.