Havre High School speakers place at state in Columbia Falls

Special to the Daily News

The Havre High School speech and debate team saw success at the state tournament over the weekend, with two speakers bringing home state medals from the tournament.

Junior Jacob Bachmeier and sophomore Ethan Smith each went up on the floor at the awards ceremony at host Columbia Falls High School, with Bachmeier earning an eighth-place finish in Lincoln-Douglas debate and Smith taking eighth in serious oral interpretation of literature.

“I’m proud of Jacob and Ethan, and all the rest of our team, for their work at state,” head coach Tim Leeds said. “As always, this was a tough tournament, and our kids did well. Jacob and Ethan were the only ones earning medals, but several others did well and everyone received good ballots in the competition.”

Bachmeier had a 3-2 win-loss record in the preliminary rounds, breaking him into the single-elimination outrounds to place in the top eight. Smith received high rankings, including one first-place mark, in his five prelims to break into semifinals in serious interpretation, and received more high marks in that round to break into finals in the event.

Sophomore Kristen Belcourt broke into the semifinals in her event, expository speaking, but did not make the cut to finals to make it into the top eight finishers.

In debate, team policy debaters Trenton Parrotte, a junior,and Trenton Smith, a sophomore, went 3-2 in preliminary rounds and just missed outrounds based on speaker points, taking ninth at the tournament.

Freshman Caitlyn Acuff also scored some team points for Havre in Lincoln-Douglas debate, winning two preliminary rounds and losing three close decisions and ending in 12th out of the 24 Lincoln-Douglas debaters at the tournament. Junior Patrick Leeds, who switched to Lincoln-Douglas mid-season and was competing in his third tournament in that event Friday and Saturday, went 1-4.

Most Havre competitors in the speech events also earned high marks in at least one preliminary round, although not enough to break into semifinals in their events.

“I was hoping our team would go further, but I’m happy with our record,” Leeds said. “Our kids have talent and have been working hard this season, but state is a tough tournament.”

Leeds added that Havre has a young team and is in a growth mode, with only two third-year competitors and half of the remainder first-year speakers.

“If we can keep building and gaining experience, I am certain the Havre team will just keep doing better and better at state,” he added.

The Havre team next is scheduled to compete at the National Speech and Debate Association district national qualifier tournament in Billings Feb. 13-14. Students at that tournament will be fighting to earn a chance to represent Havre at the national tournament, June 14-19 in Dallas.