With only two seniors available for the first speech and debate meet due to SAT testing, the Havre High Blue Ponies still achieved their hopes of capturing ABC sweepstakes Saturday at the Great Falls speech meet.
When the final scores were tallied, the Havre High team finished first in ABC sweeps, finishing 20 points ahead of all other Class A competition.
Amy Allison, a first-time competitor, led the way for the Pony speakers with a strong third- place finish in memorized public address. Teammates Ross Coons and Jen Wilkenson were close behind, finishing fourth and fifth in the same event. Gina Williams was Havre's other speech finalist, finishing fifth in serious oral interpretation.
Havre's team debate squad had a very successful opening tournament, with Peter Spangelo and Matt Welch finishing seventh in varsity team debate and both novice teams placing in a field of 12 teams. Andrew Dugdale and Matt Wagner were seventh and Lucas Hamilton and Mike Inabnit were eighth, scoring a strong finish against all AA competition at the first meet for all four novice debaters.
Two other Pony speakers, Richelle Molitor and Kristi Burstock, missed finals by a single point at their very first try in competitive speech.
A full Pony squad, with seven returning seniors, will travel next to Missoula on Nov. 2-3 to face the always tough western division teams of Columbia Falls, Corvallis and Loyola, as well as most of the AA schools in the state.
The Havre High speech and debate team offered a special thanks to Betty Williams, who traveled to Great Falls with the team and judged rounds all day.
