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Havre speech and debate does well in Glasgow

Press release

The Havre High School speech and debate team traveled to a small tournament in Glasgow Saturday for its first meet of the season.

“This wasn’t a very big tournament for the number of competitors, but for our young team it was a good way to get their feet wet and they did quite well,” Havre Head Coach Tim Leeds said. “We only have four returning speakers this year and only two of them were able to travel to compete Saturday, so for most of our team this was their first-ever competition.

“Montana had several other tournaments pulling schools Saturday, so this was a pretty small competition, but it was great experience,” Leeds added.

It also is a return to face-to-face competition, with the Montana High School Association speech, debate and drama season last year held online due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Havre was the only Class A school at Saturday’s meet, which also had 10 Class B and Class C schools competing.

When heavy snow started falling in Glasgow Saturday morning, the tournament director canceled the finals rounds to let teams get back on the road early, with the results tabulated from performances in the first three preliminary

Two of Havre’s first-year competitors broke into the top eight in the largest event at the tournament, dramatic oral interpretation of literature. Junior Sophia Dawson took third in the event and freshman Izzy Hagen took sixth.

Freshman Piper Huston also competed for Havre in DOI but did not quite break into the top eight.

Junior Dever Everingham, a second-year competitor for Havre High, also made the top eight in his event, humorous oral interpretation of literature. Everingham placed sixth for Havre.

Freshman Sienna Dennis was the only impromptu speaker at Glasgow, and performed for three judges, taking a quotation or cartoon presented to her at the start of each round and writing a speech in three minutes then presenting it to the judge.

“More competition for Sienna would have been nice, but it was great experience for her to perform in a different school in front of some new faces,” Leeds said.

In Lincoln Douglas debate, third-year debater Paige Bertelsen, a junior, and new Havre High debater Sterling Shelton, also a junior, went in a round-robin format competition with a Scobey debater. Bertelsen went 3-0 to take first and Shelton went 1-2 for a third-place finish.

Havre is taking a larger team to a large meet this coming weekend, a one-day tournament Saturday in the new East Helena High School.

“This should be a big, competitive tournament,” Leeds said. “We are entering a few more people, both experienced and first-year, who were unable to compete this last weekend, and it should be great practice for everyone.

 

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