Speech team golden at home meet
<p>Columbia Falls High School students Mason Gedlaman, left, and Henry Chisholm get ready for their performances in impromptu speaking during the Columbia Falls Invitational last week.</p>
Led by Mason Gedlaman, Alex Damon and the policy debate team of Meredith Stolte and Colin Norick, the Columbia Falls speech and debate team easily won their home meet.
Gedlaman took first place in both humorous oral interpretation and impromptu speaking during the Nov. 2 competition.
Damon took first in memorized public address, and Stolte and Norick nabbed a gold in policy debate.
The team racked up 160 points. Stevensville was a distant second with 76 points and Polson was third with 33. Bigfork won the Class B competition with 46, and Ronan had nine.
“The tournament displayed the talents of many strong competitors across the teams,” coach Tara Norick said. “We really appreciate the strong support from the community filling all of the needed judging hours. The tournament ran very smoothly, which is only possible with great community support.”
The team travels to Corvallis Friday and Saturday.
Other Columbia Falls results included:
Lincoln-Douglas debate
4th Allison Foust
7th Shelby Greene
8th Maddie Mantell
Policy debate
1st Meredith Stolte & Colter Norick
2nd Annabel Conger & Colin Norick
3rd Mara Barnes & Monique Schoech
6th Tya Bonawitz & Hailey Lemburg
7th Estevon Torres & Danny Morgan
8th Mark Shamp & Tim Ingham
Original oratory
3rd Ali Gould
5th Chloe Foster
6th Kendra Skelton
Memorized public address
2nd Breanna Friar
Impromptu speaking
5th Henry Chisholm
6th Cody Phillips
Expository speaking
6th Samantha Gilk
Humorous oral interpretation
4th Lexi Corbett
7th Jerelyn Jones
Serious oral interpretation
2nd Bailey Duke
4th Garrett Role
Extemporaneous speaking
2nd Henry Chisholm
3rd Cody Phillips
4th Emily Getts