Speakers take the crown at Loyola

The Columbia Falls speech and debate team wrapped up its regular season with a win at the Loyola Invitational meet in Missoula on Jan. 17.

The Wildcats had 142 points to second place Stevensville’s 68. The team will now tune up for the divisional and state meets coming up in the next two weeks.

The Cats had first-place finishes from Annabel Conger and Colin Norick in policy debate, two titles from Meredith Stolte in impromptu and original oratory, and a gold from Emily Getts in expository speaking.

“With the divisional tournament next weekend, competitors are making the last push to polish their performance and land on stage,” coach Tara Norick said. “We have a balanced team this year, with the points being evenly split between our speech and debate squads for the past several tournaments. The balance of strength on both sides will help us in our quest for our 10th straight state Class A title.”

Policy debate

4th Anna Nicosia and Tya Bonawitz

5th Ali Gould and Tya Bonawitz

Lincoln-Douglas

debate

2nd Mikel Knutson

4th Mary Ward

5th Gabby Merrill

6th Colter Norick

Extemporaneous

speaking

5th Cody Phillips

Impromptu speaking

5th Cody Phillips

7th Casey Shea

Original oratory

4th Casey Shea

6th Chloe Foster

7th Emily Getts

Memorized

public address

6th Bailey Duke

7th Joey Chester

8th Chloe Foster

Humorous oral

interpretation

2nd Ava Chisholm

6th Jenna Smith

Serious oral

interpretation

5th Bailey Duke

Expository

speaking

1st Emily Getts

6th Sam Gilk