Havre team wins home speech, debate and drama tournament

Press release

Havre High School held its home speech, debate and drama tournament the first week of tournaments in Montana and brought home some firsts of its own.

First-time competitor Lela Phillips, a sophomore, helped lead the way to the Blue Ponies first-place team finish with a first of her own in serious oral interpretation of literature.

Third-year Havre veteran Ethan Smith, a junior, lost a tie-breaking procedure to Phillips after they ended finals with identical total scores and finished with second place in serious interp.

Head coach Tim Leeds said he was proud of the students who earned points for Havre in a weekend with a multitude of conflicts keeping some team members from competing.

“This was a very early tournament, just three weeks into the season, and our kids did very well for being so short on practice time,” he said.

Trenton Smith, a junior and a second-year Havre debater competing at this tournament in extemporaneous speaking, also took a first at the tournament.

Jacob Bachmeier, a senior competing in his fourth year for Havre, went undefeated in the preliminary rounds in Lincoln-Douglas debate facing speakers from C.M. Russell High School and Great Falls High School. Bachmeier lost a split decision in finals to another Great Falls High School debater to take second at the tournament.

Jesse Riska, a junior in her second year of competition, also took a second for Havre, in memorized public address.

Havre took first in the team sweepstakes competition with Central A Division rival Browning taking second.

In the AA competition, Great Falls High took first to CMR’s second-place finish.

In the Class B speech sweepstakes, Shelby High School took first, followed by Malta High School in second and Cut Bank High School in third.

Chinook High School won the Class C speech competition.

In the drama sweepstakes, Browning High School took first in Class A, and in the Class B competition, Choteau High School took first while Conrad High School and Malta High School took second and third, respectively

The Blue Pony speakers now have a week off before heading to the Power/Dutton and Simms joint tournament in Simms Nov. 7.

“A lot of our students couldn’t compete this weekend because of conflicting events, and I am looking forward to getting a full-strength team on the road,” Leeds said.

He added that conflicting events in Havre and around the state also kept many regulars from judging the Ponies’ home tournament, and thanked the people from the region  who were able to judge.

“We couldn’t put these tournaments on without our volunteer judges, and I can’t thank enough the people from north-central Montana who give up their weekend time to help,” Leeds said.