Havre speech wins at Choteau

Press release

The Havre High School speech and debate team brought home a first-place sweepstakes trophy from the Choteau invitational tournament this weekend, with its students competing against Central A division rivals Fergus County High School from Lewistown and Browning High School, as well as Class A Butte Central High School from the southwest, local Class B and C schools and schools from as far away as Townsend, Three Forks, Boulder and Manhattan and a Class AA squad from Flathead.

Havre won the Class A trophy with 55 points, while Butte Central took second with 26.

Original orator Randi Ruhkamp led the way for Havre, with perfect scores in the three preliminary rounds and a first- and two second-place rankings from the three judges in the finals round to finish first out of six competitors.

Trenton Parrotte and Trenton Smith went 2-1 in three rounds against a policy debate team form Class B powerhouse Three Forks, also earning a first-place medal.

Patrick Leeds also earned points for Havre, taking third out of 20 competitors in humorous oral interpretation of literature.

In serious oral interpretation of literature, Emily Simonson took fourth out of the 22 students competing in that event, with Ethan Smith right behind her in fifth place.

In Lincoln-Douglas debate, Jacob Bachmeier just missed a perfect record and breaking into the finals round, going 2-1 in close debates and ending up sixth out of 15 debaters at the Choteau meet. Kaleb Gardner also scored a point in Lincoln-Douglas debate with a 1-2 record at the tournament.

Chris Steinmetz lost a tie-breaker that would have put him in the final round for memorized public address to compete for a place in the top eight, ending in ninth out of 14 speakers in that event.

Johnny Valadez also came close to the finals round, ending in 10th place out of 16 competitors in impromptu speaking.

Rounding out the team from Havre were Kristen Belcourt in expository speaking, Jesse Riska in memorized public address, Lela Phillips in dramatic interpretation and Rory Everingham in humorous interpretation.

“I’m happy with how we did and how the team is shaping up this year,” head coach Tim Leeds said. “This was a big meet with tough competition, and our competitors pulled through again to bring home another team trophy along with their individual awards.

“The Blue Pony speakers continue to improve,” Leeds added, “and I am looking forward to them sharpening their skills some more against tough competition after the break on the way to divisionals and state.”

The Havre team next heads to Laurel for a meet Jan. 9 against competition including from AA schools and Class A eastern division rivals, then to the Chinook meet Jan. 16 before heading to the Central-East divisional tournament in Hardin to qualify competitors for state, scheduled this year in Belgrade.