With five players out, speech team takes fourth at tourney

With several speakers out due to illness and other reasons, the Columbia Falls Speech and Debate team took fourth at the Havre meet over the weekend.

All told, five members were out, coach Blake Ladenburg said. Frenchtown won the meet.

Even without some top placers, the team still had some highlights.

Tre Finley and Emma Stephens continued their dominance in Policy debate claiming first place for the third weekend in a row. In speech, top placers were Aiden Judge who took a resurgent second place in informative speaking, and Lillian McDonald who placed third in her first Impromptu tournament.

“We started working together this week, and after two practices (McDonald) is showing natural talent for short prep speaking,” assistant coach Jodi Schipper said.

The teams take a pause in tournaments over the two-week holiday break, but will pick up in January with two regular tournaments left before the two post season tournaments.

The next tournament is being hosted by Miles City on Jan. 9.

Each team needs to provide virtual judges for each tournament if you are interested in judging at any tournament please email b_ladenburg@cfmtschools.net.