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Columbia Falls Speech and Debate takes a Close Second at First Virtual Tournament
December 7, 2020
Formidable Showing
Columbia Falls Speech and Debate takes a Close Second at First Virtual Tournament
Whitefish, MT – December 5, 2019 –
The Columbia Falls Speech and Debate team kicked of the 2020-2021 season with a formidable showing at the Whitefish Virtual Tournament. Despite winning speech Frenchtown outpaced the Wildcats in debate resulting in a second place finish by 18 points.
The team was missing some notable competitors, but still managed to have an even performance when looking at the final placings. The team only missed out on placing in one debate event. Head Coach Blake Ladenburg notes, “that even performance across the events is very promising for us.” The team was led by 1st place finishes by Chloe Coberly in Dramatic Interp, and Tre Finley and Emma Stephens in Policy Debate.
Ladenburg was pleased with the performance given the unusual start to the season. “We are still adjusting to this new format. We will only improve from here.” Ladenburg noted that he still had several competitors who held off from competing in the tournament, “the uncertainty of this virtual format had a lot of our students concerned. I think we all feel more comfortable moving forward from here.”
Earlier this season MHSA delayed the start of the Speech and Debate season by one month and announced a virtual format. They also decided there would only be one tournament per MHSA school classification each weekend meaning only one AA, one A, and one B/C tournament a week. With the exception of Divisionals, where two tournaments will take place, each week is a practice State Tournament. This week the team competes at the Laurel Virtual Tournament, and end the month competing at Havre before Christmas break.
Each team needs to provide virtual judges for each tournament if you are interested in judging at any tournament please email b_ladenburg@cfmtschools.net.
Individual Results:
Original Oratory
4th Julia Sowerwine
Memorized Public Address
2nd Lillian McDonald
Informative Speaking
3rd Taylor Stephens
4th Aiden Judge
Impromptu
2nd Chloe Coberley
Humorous Interp
5th Ruby Davis
6th Zack Tillman
Dramatic Interp
1st Chloe Coberley
Policy Debate
1st Emma Stephens and Tre Finley
4th Eleanor Hollingsworth and Finley Sundberg
Lincoln Douglas Debate
5th Eddie Chisholm
Sweeps (team score):
1st Frenchtown – 131
2nd Columbia Falls – 113
3rd Laurel – 102
