Havre speech takes third at Laurel

Press release

The Havre speech and debate team again saw success over the weekend, with Havre speakers taking enough points at a massive tournament in Laurel — in a tournament which also previewed the upcoming divisionals in Hardin — to take third out of the eight Class A schools at the meet.

Havre speakers earned 39 points for Havre’s finish, with host Laurel High School taking first with 84 points and fellow Eastern Division powerhouse Billings Central High School taking second with 72 points.

Havre speakers also competed against students from fellow Central Class A division Fergus County High School from Lewistown and from Eastern Class A schools Hardin High School, Custer County High School from Miles City, Dawson County High School from Glendive and Sidney High School, as well as teams from Class AA schools Billings Skyview and Bozeman and 13 Class BC schools which attended the Laurel Locomotive Invitational.

Leading the way for Havre was junior Ethan Smith, a three-year veteran for Havre who took first place out of 28 competitors in dramatic oral interpretation of literature. Smith received three first-place finishes in preliminary rounds then two firsts and a third from the three-judge finals panel. First-year Havre speaker Lela Phillips, a sophomore, also earned her way into finals and ended up in seventh.

Senior Emily Simonson was one of two Havre speakers to lose tie-breakers that would have put them into finals, ending up ninth place in dramatic oral interp.

Senior Patrick Leeds, a four-year Havre speaker competing in his third tournament in a new event, humorous oral interpretation of literature, also lost a tie-breaker, ending up in ninth out of 27 speakers.

Senior and four-year veteran Jacob Bachmeier went undefeated in prelims, defeating two Laurel debaters and one from Billings Central in Lincoln-Douglas debate, before losing against the top Laurel LD debater in finals and ending up in second out of 22.

First-year LD debater Kaleb Gardner, a freshman, also earned points for Havre, defeating a Laurel competitor but losing a close round to a Billings Central competitor and taking a loss to the Laurel debater who took first at the meet.

Team policy debaters Trenton Parrotte, a senior, and Trenton Smith, a junior, just missed a chance to debate for the top two spots in finals. Parrotte and Smith went 2-1, defeating debaters from Laurel and Columbus but losing a close round against a Bozeman team, and ended up in fifth place out of 12 debaters.

Junior Randi Ruhkamp, who also took three first-place finishes from preliminary judges, earned a fifth-place finish for the Blue Ponies out of 16 speakers in original oratory.

Rounding out the team for Havre were sophomore Rory Everingham in humorous oral interp, junior Kristen Belcourt in expository speaking, junior Jesse Riska in memorized public address and sophomore Johnny Valadez in impromptu speaking.

“I am really happy with how we did,” head coach Tim Leeds said. “I was hoping we could do a bit more in finals, and losing in a tie is always a heart-breaker, but this was a really tough, enormous tournament.

“It also gave us a good preview of what we will see at divisionals in Hardin in two weeks, and we can do a little more preparation for that,” Leeds added.

2016 is the first year for what is being characterized as super-divisionals in speech, with the east and central divisions combined into one Eastern Divisional and the northwest and southwest combined into a Western Divisional. All of the Eastern Divisional schools except Browning and Belgrade, which competed in Columbia Falls this weekend, were at the Laurel tournament.

Havre next competes at the Chinook invitational meet Saturday before heading to Hardin Jan. 23.

The top 12 finishers in each event at Hardin will qualify for competition at the Class A speech, debate and drama tournament, set for Jan. 29-30 in Belgrade.