Twenty members of Havre High School's speech and debate team traveled to Great Falls on Saturday to compete in the Great Falls Soroptimists Icebreaker.
Great Falls High School won the AA sweepstakes and Havre High School won the A trophy.
Havre's Andrew Dusek won his second straight championship in expository speaking, and Rick Verploegen was fourth in the same event. Christina Hoppe placed third in original oratory. Jade Lowder was fifth in humorous solo interpretation, while Lucas Minnick was sixth in varsity Lincoln-Douglas debate. Rachel Rawn rounded out the Pony scorers with an eighth-place finish in serious oral interpretation.
North Star's Katie Lavery was a finalist in original oratory. Ben Vande Sandt of Chester/Joplin-Inverness made the top eight in memorized public address
“We're very happy with the strength of our competitors in finals,” ssaid Havre head coach Peggy Fink. “But we saw some real improvement in the scores for some of our younger competitors too.”
“Zack Kamla was a top speaker throughout this meet, and Dan Marino and Richard Leeds saw their speaker's points rise significantly as they competed in novice Lincoln-Douglas this weekend,” she added. “We're still looking for policy debaters. We need at least one more team to begin working before divisional in January.”
The Pony speakers will travel next to the City of Gold Invitational in Helena Oct. 28-29.
