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Pony harriers aim for fast times at home

Beaver Creek Golf Course to host Eastern A Fall Classic Saturday

After a strong performance last Saturday by both Havre High cross country teams, the Blue Ponies will set their sights on conquering the Eastern A in the Fall Classic.

The Fall Classic, which is essentially a replacement for the old divisional meet in cross country, will feature all 10 Eastern A teams for the first time and it will be right here in Havre at the Beaver Creek Golf Course. The meet starts at 1 p.m.

"The kids are pretty excited," HHS head coach Josh Holt said. "I think they are really looking forward to running at Beaver Creek for the first time, as opposed to the college. We are talking no hills, so it's flat and fast. I expect to see some extremely good times."

Normally, when Havre hosts a cross country meet, it has done it on the campus of Montana State University-Northern. That course features a number of hills and is quite challenging. The Beaver Creek Golf Course, though, is notoriously flat and, outside of some potentially strong winds, it should be a much faster course than the Ponies are used to.

"It's supposed to be about 35 degrees," Holt said. "And it's not supposed to be too windy, so it should be just about perfect. It's going to be a little cold, but running in the cold is part of cross country. I think that we will be well prepared for that and we have gotten a chance to run the course, so we are ready."

The Ponies are also coming in fresh off a strong performance especially Kadia Miller and Dylan Young, who each took home first place in the Browning Invitational, held in Cut Bank, in their respective races last Saturday. Young finished first for the Havre boys after a time of 18:37. He was followed closely by his teammates Noah Azure (4th, 19:11) and Cameron Pleninger (6th, 19:23). Sidney Moffitt (15th, 20:16), Kendall Pleninger (18th, 20:46), Ethan Durward (19th, 20:47) and Sergio Tomayo (20th, 20:48) also ran well. They will all be in action Saturday along with Jakob Keller, Havre's No. 1 runner on the boys team. The meet will also feature junior varsity competition.

For Miller it was her third victory of the season, as she lead the girls team with a time of 21:03. Emma Gillen (5th, 23:20) and Lily Tally (23:45) also finished in the top 10. They will be joined Saturday by the other varsity runners for Havre, Tamera O'Leary, Hannah Haslem and Grace Loftus, as well as Aliviah Pratt who was 13th (25:18) in Browning.

While the Fall Classic will be a chance for the Eastern A teams to compete against each other and earn some bragging rights, it will also prove to be great preparation for the state meet next Saturday in Missoula.

"It's going to be great," Holt said. "Some of these teams, we have only seen once, so we will get a chance to be more familiar with them and know what it's going to be like next week at state."

Holt also said, because the runners will have a chance to post some good times at Beaver Creek, it should provide an increase in confidence too with state on the horizon.

"The course is going to be flat and fast, and that's what I expect," Holt said. "I expect our kids to run hard and put up some fast times and if we can do that, we should get a nice boost and some confidence heading into state."

In addition to Havre, the other teams in attendance will be Lewistown, Laurel, Billings Central, Livingston, Sidney, Glendive, Hardin, Belgrade and Miles City. The first varsity race gets underway at 1 p.m.

 

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