Eureka wins state drama title

With just six students competing, the Lincoln County High School drama team scored 63 points to win the Montana Class B Drama championship on Saturday.

Kelley Comstock, the coach for the Eureka thespians, was shocked at the unexpected victory.

“We had never placed at state before,” she said. “We always got second at divisionals and then don’t place at state. I’m so proud of my kids.”

For Lincoln County High School, which doesn’t field a speech or debate team, drama has been a shining spot.

Alexandra Bartmess and Michelle Baetge took the top marks in the Humorous Duo category. Sarah Moen and Madison Short took third in Humorous Duo. Storm Bakkila and Caitlin Hanson placed third in Classical Duo.

Comstock said part of her team’s resilience at the state tournament comes from the regular season.

“We live so far up in the north part of the state that we compete with class A and AA schools most of the time because they are closer,” she said. “When we get to the state meet we see most of the B-C competition for the first time.”

The two-day meet in Ennis featured 47 teams.

The winning routine performed by Bartmess and Baetge came from “The Book of Awesome” by Neil Pasricha. Comstock said they knew they did well but mounting excitement took over.

“It was so cute. They were asking me, ‘Could we be taking first place?’” Comstock said. “The score is doubled from duos, so I started calculating and we were getting excited.”

Comstock, who was born in Whitefish and raised in Eureka, has been coaching the Lincoln County High School drama team for seven years and has not had success in the past quite like this year.

But now the school will know that the five seniors and one underclassman are best in the state.

“We had an assembly this morning and we’ll be getting a banner up in our gym,” Comstock said. “It’s just been so exciting.”

Reporter Ryan Murray may be reached at 758-4436 or by email at rmurray@dailyinterlake.com.