Havre speech and debate comes close, falls short at state

Press release

Havre High School speech and debate traveled across the Continental Divide to compete Friday and Saturday at the Class A state tournament, and several students came close to making it on stage, but could not quite pull it off.

“Our kids made a great showing this year and almost brought home some state medals, but I guess it wasn’t in the cards this year,” head coach Tim Leeds said. “We had some real talent and ability this year, and I was hoping for top-level finishes, but the competition was tough and you never know what will happen at state.”

Havre qualified all 15 of its divisional entries for state, with the majority of the team first-year competitors.

Several made it to the semifinals round, but were not able to make the break into finals to earn a state medal.

“We had a lot of what happened the week before at divisionals in Miles City,” Leeds said, “with a student getting a first-place ranking from a judge one round and a sixth-place or even eighth-place finish from a judge in another round.

“The judging is all subjective, and what one judge is looking for and likes may be completely different from another,” Leeds added. “The competition was really tough, too. One of our competitors took fourth in a round, but the judge said it was nearly a tie for first place and the judge had difficulty breaking that tie, the presentations were all so high-quality.”

Junior Elaine Atkinson in humorous interpretation of literature and senior Angelle Roen in memorized public address were Havre competitors who pulled ones in preliminary rounds to break into semifinals, but despite some good semifinal rankings did not make the cut to finals.

Senior Alyssa Smith and sophomore Melanie Veith both took high marks in prelims — including one second-place rank for each — and broke into finals in informative speaking but also could not make the cut into finals.

Freshman Kate Hemmer, who has been taking first-place ranks in rounds all year in original oratory and has won multiple tournaments, did not have a good reception at Whitefish and missed the cut into semifinals.

Roen also competed in original oratory — her first competition in the event was her state-qualifying performance at divisionals — but also missed breaking into semifinals.

Freshman Dever Everingham and sophomore Tristan Molyneaux also missed the cut into humorous interpretation, with Everingham just missing and ending in 17th place.

On the debate side, Havre had several strong contenders who made a good showing but also failed the cut into the top eight.

Junior Xavier Ulano and sophomore Dartanion Kaftan, second-place finishers at divisionals who were debating at state in just their third tournament together, went into the fifth preliminary round for public forum debate in third place with a 3-1 record. They lost a close match in that round, and lost a tie-breaking procedure based on speaking points to miss going into quarterfinals.

Juniors Joram Randolph and Noah Teasley, who had done well for Havre all season including earning sixth-place finishes at divisionals, also lost a couple of key close debates to finish 1-4 at state.

LillieAnn Mecklenburg, who had been debating with Kaftan in policy debate and returned to Lincoln-Douglas debate in January, also was a close miss. Mecklenburg, who finished third in divisionals, went 2-3 in Whitefish.

Freshman debaters Mackenzie Kuhn and Paige Bertelsen received some good comments in close debates in Lincoln-Douglas, but also failed to make the cut, with each ending with a 1-4 record.

Sophomore Scarlett Marin, who started competing for the Blue Ponies in January after she transferred to Havre High School, tried to compete at the tournament, speaking in dramatic oral interpretation of literature for three rounds Friday despite not feeling her best until her illness sidelined her Saturday and she dropped from competition.