Columbia Falls Speech and Debate takes First at Second Virtual Tournament

Laurel, MT – December 12, 2020 –

The Columbia Falls Speech and Debate team rebounded from their first tournament to top the competition at the Laurel Invitational Tournament. The team topped the other 19 schools to take home the first place trophy. Columbia Falls was able to close the gap in debate and win the tournament by 37 points over Frenchtown 146 to 109, a 55 point reversal from last week.

Head Coach Blake Ladenburg was pleased with the performance, “I told the students that this year was going to be a challenge and they would have to work hard to hold off the competition, and they responded this week. We have to keep up the effort to keep this trajectory going.” The rebound is promising for the team, but as Coach Mikel Knutson notes, “we are still at the beginning of the season, and we have yet to see everyone’s full team.”

Columbia Falls was led by strong performances in debate taking the top two spots in Policy Debate and the top spot in Lincoln Douglas. Speech was led by 2nd place finishes in Dramatic Interpretation by Griffin Conger and Informative Speaking by Aiden Judge. Overall 13 students placed in the top 8. The team now turns their attention to the virtual tournament this upcoming week being hosted by Havre High School. This will be the last tournament before the holiday 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:

Memorized Public Address

2nd Lillian McDonald

Informative Speaking

2nd Aiden Judge

3rd Taylor Stephens

Impromptu

3rd Chloe Coberley

Extemporaneous

4th Aiden Judge

Dramatic Interp

2nd Griffin Conger

5th Zack Tillman

6th Chloe Coberley

Policy Debate

1st Emma Stephens and Tre Finley

2nd Eleanor Hollingsworth and Finley Sundberg

Lincoln Douglas Debate

1st Eddie Chisholm

Sweeps (team score):

1st Columbia Falls – 146 2nd Frenchtown – 109 3rd Whitefish – 88