Speech and debate takes second at state tourney

The Columbia Falls speech and debate team came up just short as it sought its 25th state A title. The Wildcats were edged by Whitefish, 255-250 at the tournament in Laurel Saturday, taking second.

It was one of the closest finishes in years. In 2019, the Wildcats thought they had lost a tiebreaker to Whitefish as both teams had 187 points at the end of the tourney and the Bulldogs were declared the winner on the second tiebreaker criteria, but a scoring error was discovered a day later and Columbia Falls won, 192-189.

“The Columbia Falls and Whitefish teams have had close finishes all season and it was expected that the State tournament would be no different.  The competitors from both schools put everything they had into the weekend and concluded their regular season with a photo finish,” coach Dawn Roe said. “Whitefish worked hard for the win so the moment was bittersweet for most of our competitors.   The teams have a great working relationship so while they of course would have loved the state trophy, it was nice to see it stay with our friends in our Northwest Division.  With such a close finish, competitors and coaches can run through the ‘what ifs’ in a way that might not happen with a larger point spread.  However, our team put their all into their rounds, they did exactly as we asked them to and had nothing left to give at the conclusion of the tournament which is a win and I couldn’t be more proud.”

The Cats had one state champion – Carson Settles won the title in Program Oral Interpretation.

Frenchtown rounded out the top three with 84 points.  The following Columbia Falls competitors placed in their events.

Policy Debate

Lauren Rogers and Boone Shanks 3rd place

Cheyanne Dear-Ruel and Loren Connors, 5th Place

Logan Emerson and Kendal Moultray, 6th Place

Lincoln Douglas Debate

Celestine Young, 3rd place

Melody McNally, 7th Place

Public Forum Debate

Quinn Caudle and Kaya Carlburg, 2nd place

Malakai Shaw and Chloe Kinsella, 4th Place

Extemporaneous

Selah Heinzen, 7th place

Sage Petioni, 8th place

Impromptu

Eleanor Smiley, 3rd Place

Sage Petioni, 9th Place

Program Oral Interp

Carson Settles, State Champion

Kira Shanks, 4th Place

Emma Wilcox, 6th Place

Duo Interpretation

Carson Settles and Reed Wollenzien, 2nd Place

Brandon Widhalm and Kory Moran, 7th Place

Humorous Interpretation

Tia Marie Poor, 3rd place

Reed Wollenzien, 5th place

Dramatic Interpretation

Kory Moran, 2nd place

Tia Marie Poor, 5th place

Memorized Public Address

Merell Cooley, 2nd place

Eleanor Smiley, 5th place

Kira Shanks, 7th place