The Havre High Speech and Debate team faced stiff competition to capture third place in the Class ABC sweepstakes at the Missoula Invitational Speech and Debate Tournament Friday and Saturday.
Loyola Sacred Heart captured first with an impressive 91 sweepstakes points, but Havre was hard on the heels of last year's Class A champion, Columbia Falls, which scored 34 points to Havre's final score of 30 sweep's points. Other Class A competitors
included Stevensville, Hamilton, Polson and Corvallis.
Leading the way for the Blue Ponies was Angela Adams, who in her second try at Lincoln-Douglas Debate finished sixth. Both of Havre's novice debate teams placed in the quarterfinals, with Andrew Dugdale and Matt Wagner finishing eighth and the freshman team of Lucas Hamilton and Mike Inabnit finishing seventh, after compiling an impressive 4-1 win-loss record in the preliminary rounds. Andrews Edwards, in his first meet of the season, finished eighth in extemporaneous speaking. Michele Holden and Gina Williams both reached semifinals in serious interpretation, and Tyrell Lundman lost
a three way tie to reach semifinals in impromptu.
Thirty members of the Pony squad traveled to Missoula to compete and the team said it was proud of their strong showing at this tough Western Division tournament,
where only one Blue Pony speaker reached finals last year. The HHS speech and debate team travels to Butte next week, where they will probably also face Class A foes Billings Central and Dillon from the Southern Division.
The Montana High School Association sanctioned speech and debate and drama season culminates in the ABC state tournament, which will be held in Havre the last weekend in January.
