Havre speech wins in Browning

Press release

The Havre High School speech and debate team won at its first tournament of the year Saturday in Browning, winning the Class A competition at the Browning-Cut Bank joint invitational tournament.

“This was a great start to the season,” head coach Tim Leeds said. “We lost nearly half our team to conflicting events, but the ones who could compete placed highly enough that we dominated the Class A sweepstakes award.”

The Blue Ponies scored 48 team points in the Class A competition, with Browning High School taking second with 4 points and Fergus County High School from Lewistown taking third with one point.

In public forum debate, veteran Trent Smith and his partner, first-time debater Brady Ophus, took first place. The two went undefeated in a round-robin competition against teammates Preston Glock and Brennen Gruiszic, both first-time debaters, and two teams from CM Russell High School in Great Falls to take first.

Gruiszic and Glock took fourth at their first-ever tournament.

Veteran speaker Ethan Smith received high marks in the preliminary and finals rounds of dramatic oral interp, ending with a third-place finish for the Ponies.

Varsity speaker Jesse Riska also earned a third-place finish for Havre, competing in memorized public address.

Kaleb Gardner, debating in his second year for Havre High School, went 2-1 in preliminary rounds, scoring points with a sixth-place finish for the Ponies.

Varsity impromptu speaker Johnny Valadez also broke into the finals round competing for Havre, ending up in seventh place at Browning. First-year speaker Jayne Nelson also competed in impromptu, making some good marks and comments on the ballots but did not make the break into outrounds.

Havre has a week off from competition, with the next scheduled tournament the Conrad High School invitational Nov. 12.