Havre speech wins at Browning

Press release

The Havre High School speech and debate team fielded its largest team of the season Saturday and saw success at the Browning invitational tournament.

“This was a great showing,” head coach Tim Leeds said. “Our kids who have been competing this season scored well, and students who have been in other activities this year came in for their first meet and scored at a big, highly competitive tournament.”

Havre took first place in the Class A competition with students scoring 78 points against teams from Havre’s local Class ABC rivals and students from Class AA C.M. Russell High school and schools as far away as Eureka, Libby and Ronan.

Host Browning took second in the Class A competition with 12 points, and Fergus County High School from Lewistown took third with 11.

Trenton Smith, who has taken two first-place finishes this year in extemporaneous speaking, was rejoined in Browning by his debate partner Trenton Parrotte, and the duo went undefeated to win the team policy debate competition.

Four-year veteran Jacob Bachmeier also went undefeated at Browning to win his third first-place finish this year for the Blue Ponies in Lincoln-Douglas debate. First-year debater Kaleb Gardner lost the first two rounds but came back to win the third round, scoring in Havre’s team victory.

Third-year competitor Ethan Smith also scored his third championship for the Ponies this year, taking first in dramatic oral interpretation at Browning. Lela Phillips took sixth in dramatic interp, followed by Emily Simonson, competing in her first meet of the season, taking eighth in the event.

Patrick Leeds, competing at his first tournament of the season, took second in impromptu speaking, followed by Brandon Bergren, also at his first meet, who took eighth. Johnny Valadez just missed joining the top eight impromptu-ers in the finals round, ending up in 10th place.

Randy Ruhkamp and Rory Everingham, each competing at their first tournament, took third and fifth, respectively, in original oratory at the Browning invite.

Chris Steinmetz, competing at his first tournament in the season, took fourth in memorized public address, followed by Jesse Riska, who took sixth in the event.

Kristen Belcourt, also competing at her first tournament of the season, rounded out the point scoring in Havre’s victory with a fifth-place finish in expository speaking.

The Blue Ponies take the next week off for the Thanksgiving holiday, returning to action Dec. 5 with the Chester/Joplin-Inverness invitational tournament.