Speech and debate team caps off perfect season with 23rd state title

The lighter side of executions. School shootings. War and peace in the Middle East.

Those were just some of the topics that Columbia Falls speakers and debaters excelled in as the team won its 23rd state class A championship.

The Wildcats had five first-place finishers and 17 others that placed in the two-day tournament in Sidney Friday and Saturday.

Aiden Rohn and Brayden Crawford were first in public forum debate; Zack Tillman and Lucas Counts took the title in duo interpretation; and Carson Settles was first in informative.

Settles’ speech was on execution methods over the history of humanity. The Greeks, for example, burned people alive in a Bronze bull.

Victims came out, “Almost as charred as my family’s Thanksgiving turkey,” he quipped.

It was that sort of wry humor that likely won the sophomore the title.

For Counts and Tillman, they tackled the heady subject of school shootings in a performance that wowed the judges. Counts has appeared in quite a few school plays, but this was his first year of speech. He was, quite literally, dragged to a practice one day.

“I never expected to be on the team,” he said.

But the pair worked well together.

“We memorized and blocked the piece in a day,” Tillman said.

For debaters Rohn and Crawford, it was their second title in a row.

While that was nice, the two seniors said, “It was more gratifying to win as a team.”

Coach Dawn Roe said the season was “humbling,” noting that 17 of the speakers that qualified for state were brand new to the team.

The Wildcats were undefeated among Class A competition this season. This year the team simply outpaced its class A competition at every meet, including state. Some members competed in more than one event, a grueling exercise if there ever was one. This is the first state title for Roe.

“It’s been an amazing season,” Roe said.

Additional placers at Sidney included: Eddie Chisholm - third in Lincoln Douglas debate. Reed Wollenzein and Carson Settles - third in duo interpretation Ruby Davis - third in informative Elli Sandstrom and Ruby Davis fourth in duo interpretation Lauren Rogers and Boone Shanks fourth in policy debate Makinzie Taylor - fourth in humorous interpretation Ava Minns - Prezeau and Celestine Young - fifth in policy debate Eleanor Hollingsworth and Kynsleigh Gould - sixth in policy debate Julianna MacPherson and Selah Heinzen - sixth in public forum debate Quinn Caudle and Logan Emerson seventh in public forum debate Alanna Milhollen - seventh in Lincoln Douglas Debate The Wildcats still have one tournament left, as they travel to Missoula next month to compete

in national qualifiers, Roe said.

The team won 15 straight titles up until 2020. They took second in 2021 and 2022.