Havre speech competes at national qualifiers

Press release

Havre High School speech and debate competed over the weekend at the National Speech and Debate Association national qualifier tournament in Billings, and while no Blue Ponies qualified for a trip to nationals in Dallas, head coach Tim Leeds said he was pleased.

“This is, in many ways, the toughest tournament of the year,” Leeds said. “Some of the best in all classes, AA, A, B and C, come to try to earn a spot at nationals. Only the top two or three, sometimes four, in each event make it to nationals, so just being at the tournament is an honor and great experience for the students.”

Havre’s most-experienced competitor, four-year Lincoln-Douglas debator Kaleb Gardner, who just missed bringing home a divisional champion medal this year, was unable to compete at national qualifiers due to a conflicting event.

Havre took six competitors to Billings, and although none qualified for nationals, Leeds said he was pleased with their performance.

“We have a really young team this year,” he said. “Kaleb was our only competitor with more than one year experience, and three of the Blue Ponies at national qualifiers were first-year competitors, but still earned some good marks.”

The top competitor for Havre was one of those first-year competitors. Sophomore Elaine Atkinson performed a cutting from William Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” and took one fourth-place spot and a first-place spot in two of the five preliminary rounds, but did not make the cut to semifinals.

Another first-year competitor, freshman Melanie Veith, also received some good marks in the preliminary rounds performing a speech about social anxiety in the informative speaking competition, but did not advance to semifinals.

In debate, the tournament was run in a double-elimination format with four rounds held Friday. All of the Havre debaters, sophomore LillieAnn Mecklenburg and her partner, freshman Dartanion Kaftan, in team policy debate and sophomores Joram Randolph and Noah Teasley, lost in close rounds Friday.

The debaters competed in Congress Saturday, and although they received some good marks did not advance to the finals round.

“Everyone on the team did well this year, at divisionals, state and the national qualifier competitions, and I think we can build a pretty strong team next year with this core of competitors,” Leeds said.