Columbia Falls wins again

| January 28, 2007 1:00 AM

Successful Class A Speech championship

The Daily Inter Lake

Columbia Falls High School earned its second state championship in as many years at the Class A speech, drama and debate tournament this weekend.

It's Columbia Falls' ninth state win overall and head coach Michael Christensen's seventh state championship - a record in Class A speech.

"He definitely deserves some recognition," assistant coach Alyson Dorr said. "He's an incredible coach, and it was an incredible team effort by each one of our kids."

Columbia Falls finished with 161 points. Billings Central took second with 87 points, and Whitefish finished in third place with a score of 72. Results were not immediately available for Whitefish or Bigfork, which reportedly captured at least one individual title.

"There was an excellent showing in the west," Dorr said. "In our division, in Humorous Oral Interpretation, which is one of the more competitive events typically in the state tournament … five of eight kids in the finals were from the western division."

Each student on Columbia Falls' divisional team contributed in points, Dorr said. Freshman Laura Burgess captured one of Columbia Falls individual titles in Serious Oral Interpretation.

"She had a pretty impressive final round - composure, poise under pressure," Dorr said.

Tashia Schupert and Aaron Jungitch were the school's other first-place finishers in Lincoln-Douglas Debate.

"Debate dominated, I think, at the tournament," Dorr said. "It was just consistent. We're very pleased."

. Original Oratory: 3. Vanesha Riley

. Humorous Oral Interpretation: 3. Alex Prince; 6. Carrie Hopkins

. Serious Oral Interpretation: 1. Laura Burgess; 2. Brittany Calderwood

. Extemporaneous: 3. Patrick Ingham; 4. Alex Riffey

. Expository: 6. Maya Negron; 8. Moyu Harada

. Impromptu: 3. Michelle Cronquist; 4. Heather Jurva

. Memorized Public Address: 2. Winnie Opp; 4. Keith Catt; 7. Weston Bartoski

. Lincoln-Douglas Debate: 2. Brandon Norick; 6. Tiffany Gross

. Policy Debate: 1. Tashia Schupert and Aaron Jungitch