Cats speech, debate, on a roll heading into divisional tourney

With five speakers taking first place finishes and a host more placing in the top echelon at Ronan last weekend, the Columbia Falls speech and debate team is rounding into form as it hosts the Western A Divisional tournament this weekend.

At Ronan, the Wildcats squared off against seven other Class A schools, as wells as schools from both Class B and Class C. Scoring points in all seven speech and three debate events, Columbia Falls demonstrated the breadth of the team. Columbia Falls won the sweeps with 212 points, Whitefish was second with 81 points, and Polson took third with 38 points.

“Leading up to this weekend’s divisional tournament in Columbia Falls, I was pleased to see the team do well against broad competition from all over the western division,” coach Tara Norick said.

The top competitors from the divisional tourney go on to compete at state A tourney in Laurel Jan. 27 and 28.

In public forum team debate, the finals round found Ava Chisholm and Anna Nicosia matched up against their own teammates Cassidy Norick and Kelsey Wright to battle it out for first and second. Tyler Brown took second in Lincoln-Douglas debate.

On the speech side of the roster, Joey Chester scored a first-place victory in memorized public address, Danny Morgan and Jerelyn Jones topped the roster in impromptu and humorous interpretation, respectively. Morgan and Jones were among a number of students who competed in two events at the tournament, and both placed in both events.

Columbia Falls results:

Policy Debate

4th Mary Ward and Shyane Williams

5th Ian McKenzie and Danielle Schwalk

LD Debate

2nd Tyler Brown

4th Gabby Merrell

5th Mikel Knutson

Public Forum

1st Anna Nicosia and Ava Chisholm

2nd Cassidy Norick and Kelsey Wright

5th Maggie McKeon and Delaney Conger

Dramatic Interp

2nd Estevon Torres

3rd Hannah Gustin

6th Jacob Hohman

Humorous Interp

1st Jerelyn Jones

5th Brandon Karberg

7th Jordyn King

Impromptu

1st Danny Morgan

6th Willie Baltz

Extemp

2nd Danny Morgan

Oratory

2nd Willie Baltz

3rd Jerelyn Jones

6th Miranda Lauria

7th Kayla McDowall

Memorized Public Address

1st Joey Chester

Informative

2nd Danielle Rosenbaum

4th Jacob Hohman