Two speakers win state titles

The Daily Inter Lake

Whitefish High School finished third overall at the state Class A speech, drama and debate tournament last weekend in Billings.

The Bulldogs totaled 72 points, behind second-place Billings Central's 87. Columbia Falls amassed 161 points to win the tournament for the second year in a row.

All but four of the 19 Whitefish competitors made it at least to quarterfinals. Whitefish has never finished lower than third place in its last 13 years competing at state.

Whitefish was led by Shane Hanson's individual championship in Lincoln-Douglas Debate and Jacob Fern's second-place finish in Extemporaneous.

Five Bigfork students also competed at state. Most team members missed divisionals because they were performing in a play that weekend.

Kelsey Smith of Bigfork won a state championship in Expository Speaking.

More than 500 students from 25 schools competed in this year's tournament.

Results:

. Lincoln-Douglas Debate: 1. Shane Hanson, Whitefish; 3. Matt Gwiazdon, Whitefish

. Policy Debate: 8. Ian McKay and Andy Hudak, Whitefish

. Expository: 1. Kelsey Smith, Bigfork; 7. Yumi Tsuchida, Whitefish

. Extemporaneous: 2. Jacob Fern, Whitefish

. Impromptu: 6. Abby Rundle, Bigfork

. Original Oratory: 7. Claire Morison, Whitefish

. Humorous Oral Interpretation: 8. Evan Harris, Whitefish