Speech takes a pair of seconds

The Columbia Falls speech and debate team took second behind Havre last weekend in the Helena AA tournament.

Brittany Calderwood, competing in her first tournament, placed fourth in Serious Oral Interpretation of Literature. Kerrie Dougherty placed seventh in SOI, and Anna-Christina Doehle was a semi-finalist in SOI.

Cassie Hollopeter placed sixth in Memorized Public Address and Lindie Burgess placed eighth in MPA.

Natalie Jackson placed seventh in Humorous Oral Interpretation of Literature, and Sydney Jordt placed ninth. Tom Sago also placed ninth in Expository speaking.

The team took second at Great Falls on Nov. 6 in A school competition behind Havre by a score of 36 to 22. A majority of the programs attending were from AA communities.

Top performers included Sydney Jordt, who finished third in Humorous Oral Interpretation of literature, and Natalie Jackson, who finished fifth in HOI of literature. Cassie Hollopeter finished tied for 16th in MPA.

"On the debate side of things, we learned we have a great deal to learn and continue to work to accomplish in order to get to out-rounds, quarterfinals, semifinals and finals," said coach Michael Christensen. "We only took about a fourth of our team to Great Falls and should be nearer to full strength in about three weeks. This was Natalie Jackson's first competition ever. Her achievement is testament to her talent. Sydney continues to excel as she has as a freshman and sophomore. Anna-Christina Doehle, who is from Germany, and Terri Luce, in Novice Lincoln-Douglas, both deserve mention for outstanding efforts at their first tournaments."

The next tournament is at Flathead High this weekend.

"It will be our first opportunity this season to meet teams from our Division, and we're looking forward to the opportunity, but again we will be competing with only about a third of our complete squad," said Christensen.