While the Havre track and field teams did not come away with state championships as a unit, the individuals and relay teams set standards that had not been achieved in decades. New Media Broadcasters got to chat with head coach Kari Filius and she discussed why finishing in fourth place was still a historic achievement for a program that had not had that type of success on that stage in quite some time.
“We just treated state like we treated any other meet,” Filius said. “We went in confident and were the whole season actually because they embraced competition and they carried it through into state.”
“We had a lot of really good performances and a lot of top-6 finishes,” Filius continued. “For both teams to get fourth place, that hasn’t been done in a long time.”
“It was just really fun to watch them and watch how hard they were competing and really wanting to do the best they could do,” Filius said. “They came through great and all the coaches are proud of them.”
Coach Filius has been running the Blue Pony Track program for a long time and she has made it her mission to get the teams back to where they’ve been historically. She shared her message of how the 2024 Blue Ponies bought in from the start of the season in Frenchtown to the end of it in Laurel at state.
“The last several years, we’ve been building on trying to get to other track meets that have more Class ‘A’ schools and higher levels of competition for where we’re going to compete in a postseason,” Filius said. “I think preparing the kids early in the season for that competition helped us be more ready in the postseason.”
“We’re there to compete and do well and place,” Filius said. “I think the kids believe that they are back on the mat.”
