Havre High School's speech and debate team captured its third Class A sweepstakes trophy of the early season with a convincing win Saturday over Central A rivals Browning and Fergus County High School of Lewistown.
Havre garnered 68 points in speech and debate, while Browning was second with 45 points, and Lewistown scored one point. Lewistown won the drama trophy.
C.M. Russell High School was the Class AA winner over Great Falls High with 91 points. Class B Malta won its speech sweeps with 13 points, one point better than runner-up Shelby. In Class C, Great Falls Central outscored Chester/J-I 21 to 19.
Andrew Dusek collected his third championship in four tries in expository speaking. Rick Verploegen grabbed fifth in expository, and Ali Ward was a finalist in her first tournament.
Lucas Minnick was the Lincoln-Douglas champion, while Megan Wagner and Emily Koffler earned fourth-place in policy debate.
Kris Roll won her first championship in extemporaneous speaking by winning a tie over teammate Tyler Lamb, who then placed second.
Christina Hoppe was second in original oratory, losing the championship by a single point, while Keri Burstock came in fourth.
Jade Lowder was sixth in humorous oral interpretation, while teammate Joe Palmer missed finals by a single point. Once again, the competition in the interpretation events was the toughest, as more than 20 contestants would be dropped before the final round.
Two other first-time competitors from Havre High had a very impressive showing. In memorized public address, sophomore Rachel Zenger and foreign-exchange student Alma Muskaj both reached the finals in their first try.
Head coach Peggy Fink said that she was also pleased with the improved performance from the other team members who competed in Browning.
“Six of the seven who didn't make finals are first-year competitors, and Jacques Thibodeax is a junior who is already preparing to switch over to fill a slot in team debate,” Fink said. “We're also looking forward to the return of debate veteran Richard Jarvis to our LD debate squad at Missoula. Debate had a great showing at Browning, and we're constantly working on building a strong team for Central A divisional in January.”
Havre High speech and debate will compete next weekend in Missoula, where it will face competition from the Western A conference.
