Speech team gets seventh straight win in Class A

The Wildcat speech and debate team earned its seventh straight tournament win Saturday as they held of Whitefish to win in Hamilton. Columbia Falls held onto its winning streak against tough competition from Class A and B schools around the region.

Sophomore Griffin Conger led the team with a first place finish in humorous interpretation and a second place finish in dramatic interpretation. Also scoring top honors were seniors Suzanna Rosalez, who was first in memorized public address, and Maggie McKeon, who earned first place in extemporaneous speaking.

It was another grueling meet for the Wildcats, who have several team members competing in two speech events - completing a speech in one event, and then dashing to a second room to deliver a second speech in an entirely different event. Sophomores Griffin Conger and Aiden Judge, Juniors Chloe Coberley, Julia Sowerwine, and Ave McDonald, and Senior Isaac Adams, Sam Lovering, and Maggie McKeon all take on this challenging effort, which can mean up to 80 minutes of speaking during the four preliminary rounds.

Policy debate can also take quite a toll on its competitors as a policy debate can last almost two hours and students who are in finals can have five different debates in a single day.

Head Coach Tara Norick talked about the effort it takes to compete in Speech and Debate.

“Not everyone realizes how speech and debate can be physically demanding. These kids compete from 8a.m. to 6p.m., and are on their feet most of that time,” she said. “The stress of competition, and the necessity that they be on the top of their mental game for that entire time, is grueling. By the end of the day, we’re all exhausted.”

In the team sweeps for Class A competition, Columbia Falls earned 159 points across 10 events to edge out Whitefish, which was a strong challenger, with 128 team points.

The team has a break for the holidays, with the next tournament in Frenchtown on Jan. 11. The regular season wraps up Jan. 18 with the Polson Invitational, followed by divisionals in Stevensville Jan. 25 and state in Whitefish starting Jan. 31.

“We are looking forward to continuing to build towards the State tournament,” said Norick. “We know that we earn every win, and there is some amazing competition out there this year. We are going to work hard and stay focused, and not take anything for granted.”

Individual competitors results were as follows:

Policy Debate:

3rd Emma Stephens and Shyane Williams

5th Calie Jo Johnson and Tre Finley

6th Finley Sundberg and Ava Foley

Public Forum Debate:

2nd Lara Erickson & Laney Conger

Lincoln Douglas Debate:

3rd Eddie Chisholm

5th Raphe Salmon

Impromptu:

2nd Maggie McKeon

4th Sam Lovering

5th Chloe Coberley

Extemporaneous

1st Maggie McKeon

4th Sam Lovering

5th Aiden Judge

Informative

5th Aiden Judge

Humorous Interpretation:

1st Griffin Conger

4th Isaac Adams

Dramatic Interpretation:

2nd Griffin Conger

3rd Isaac Adams

6th Chloe Coberley

Memorized Public Address:

1st Suzanna Rozalez

2nd Julia Sowerwine

6th Lidda Peterson

8th Siri Erickson

Sweeps (team score)

1st Columbia Falls 159

2nd Whitefish 128

3rd Frenchtown 67