Flathead comes out on top

Flathead Valley speech and debate teams took the top placements at the Corvallis-Hamilton Invitational this weekend.

More than 20 students competed with Flathead High School, securing first place in Class AA with 262 sweepstakes points, followed by Sentinel in second place with 145 points. Helena High School finished third with 75 points.

Flathead had 30 finalists and first-place finishes in Impromptu Speaking, Informative Speaking, Original Oratory, Humorous Interpretation and Lincoln Douglas debate Head Coach Shannon O’Donnell said.

“We saw a lot of strong performances this weekend from both JV and varsity competitors, a nice finish to the JV season. It is always gratifying to see those kids who’ve put in a tremendous amount of work — over the longest season of any competitive activity — achieve success in their individual events,” O’Donnell said.

Glacier High School competed at the Idaho State Invitational over the weekend.

In Class A, Columbia Falls High School soared to first with 168 total points. Whitefish High School achieved second with 65 sweepstakes points followed by Belgrade in third with 40 points.

With up to 50 competitors in an event, competition was tough, but Columbia Falls competitors placed in the top eight in every speech final round, according to Columbia Falls Head Coach Tara Norick.

“Our balance across the team will really help us as we look to competing in the state tournament later this month in Laurel. We have to keep working to fine-tune our speeches before then as we do not see the Eastern teams until we are at state,” Norick said.

In Class B-C, Bigfork High School placed second in both speech and drama sweepstakes.

Following are individual results:

Humorous Oral Interpretation — 1. Hunter Driear, Flathead; 2. Kayli Burbank, Flathead; 5. Annie Jones, Flathead; 6. Jerelyn Jones, Columbia Falls.

Dramatic Oral Interpretation — 4. Jacob Hohman, Columbia Falls; 6. Estevon Torres, Columbia Falls; 7. Sidney Frandsen, Flathead; 8. Nikki Sauter, Flathead.

Duo Interpretation — 2. Hunter Driear and Annie Jones, Flathead; 3. Rebecca Vance and Conrad Hedinger, Flathead; 5. Annie Jones and Toby Diegel, Flathead.

Original Oratory — 1. Rebecca Vance, Flathead; 2. Grace Olechowski, Bigfork; 3. America Mason, Flathead; 4. Willie Baltz, Columbia Falls; 5. Emma Thompson, Flathead; 7. Kaitlyn Dittmer, Flathead.

Impromptu Speaking — 1. Grace Cady, Flathead; 4. Sienna Riley, Flathead; 5. Danny Morgan, Columbia Falls; 6. Reed Miller, Flathead; 8. Willie Baltz, Columbia Falls.

Extemporaneous Speaking — 1. Zachary Ade, Whitefish; 3. Grace Cady, Flathead; 4. Danny Morgan, Columbia Falls.

Informative Speaking — 1. Tristan Phillips, Flathead; 4. Julia Wynne, Flathead; 6. Jacob Hohman, Columbia Falls; 8. Anya Young, Bigfork.

Memorized Public Address — 1. Chloe Foster, Columbia Falls; 4. Nick Weaver, Flathead; 5. Tayler Jakeway, Flathead; 6. Zachary Ade, Whitefish; 7. Joey Chester, Columbia Falls; 8. Riley Jochim, Flathead.

Lincoln-Douglas Debate — 1. Sierra Dilworth, Flathead; 2. Noah Love, Flathead; 4. Tyler Brown, Columbia Falls; 5. Mikel Knutson, Columbia Falls.

Legislative Debate ­— 6. Scott O’Donnell, Flathead; 8. Kaesha Mertes-Wright, Flathead.

Policy Debate — 1. Annabel Conger and Colin Norick, Columbia Falls; 2. Ian Caltabiano and Zachary Kasselder, Whitefish; 5. Ian McKenzie and Danielle Schwalk, Columbia Falls; 7. Trey Spalding and Shyane Williams, Columbia Falls.

Public Forum Debate — 2. Annabelle Pukas and Josh Wolf, Flathead; 5. Anna Nicosia and Ava Chisholm, Columbia Falls; 7. Maggie McKeon and Delaney Conger, Columbia Falls.

Humorous Duo — 3. KC Isman and hattie Emslie, Bigfork.

Pantomime — 5. Josephine Howlett, Bigfork.