November 20, 2019 at 8:21 am | By JEREMY WEBER Hungry Horse News

The Columbia Falls speech and debate team picked up another win over the weekend as the Wildcats were in action in Missoula. The Cats matched their orating skills in nine events against some of the largest schools in the state and came away with first place among Class A, B and C schools.

“It’s a really long day,” senior Maggie McKeon, who competed in Extemporaneous and Impromptu Speaking events, said. “We spend about 12 hours in competition at a big tournament like this.”

Columbia Falls had three top-three finishes as the team of Lara Erickson and Laney Conger took second in public forum debate, Suzanna Rosalez was second in memorized public address and Isaac Adams took third in dramatic interpretation.

Columbia Falls battled it out with six Class A, B, and C schools, including Frenchtown and Loyola Sacred Heart, and took first place in sweeps with 54.5 points while Frenchtown placed second with 19.

“We are definitely rebuilding our team this year, with a very large segment of our squad being young and inexperienced. This was their first two-day tournament and you could see their exhaustion,” assistant coach Mikel Knutson said. “These are talented kids, and we are feeling good about the season, but we will have to keep working hard to develop our squad as we move toward Divisionals in January.”

Columbia Falls will be hosting its invitational tournament this Saturday and is still seeking to sign up a few more judges to help with the CF tournament. Head coach Tara Norick says that anyone can participate and any help would be greatly appreciated.

“This is a great chance to see these talented kids in action. There are no prerequisites to be a judge, so we invite anyone from the community to come help out,” Norick said.

Those interested in helping can contact Norick at tnorick@gmail.com.

Missoula meet results:

Policy Debate:

9th Calie Johnson & Tre` Finley

10th Emma Stephens & Shyane Williams

Public Forum Debate:

2nd Lara Erickson & Laney Conger

Novice Lincoln-Douglas Debate:

5th Eddie Chisholm

13th Konnor Heindl

Humorous Interpretation:

16th Ave’ McDonald

Dramatic Interpretation:

3rd Isaac Adams

4th Griffin Conger

Memorized Public Address:

2nd Suzanna Rosalez

14th Julia Sowerwine

15th Ave’ McDonald

Extemporaneous:

7th Maggie McKeon

Impromptu:

7th Sam Lovering

9th Maggie McKeon

12th Paige Moriarty

Informative:

13th Aiden Judge

Program Oral Interp:

9th Chloe Coberley

Sweeps (team score)

1st Columbia Falls 54.5

2nd Frenchtown 19

3rd Corvallis 6