Havre High speech and debate competes in Bozeman

Press release

A young Havre High School speech and debate team traveled to Bozeman over the weekend to compete in an enormous tournament held at Bozeman High School and the new Gallatin High School, and while no one placed in the top eight, that had some good results and great experience, Havre head coach Tim Leeds said.

“I was hoping to have some kids on stage receiving awards — we have the talent for that — but it wasn’t in the cards,” Leeds said. “We did get some wins, some good marks, and some great comments and suggestions, though. This was some great experience for the Pony speakers.”

Leeds said five of the nine Havre competitors Friday and Saturday were first-year speakers, and three more were second-year competitors.

The Havre students competed against varsity squads from 15 AA schools as well as 11 junior varsity AA squads, as well as eight other Class A schools and Class C Great Falls Central High School, who dethroned the 36-year Class B state champion team from Missoula’s Loyola Sacred Heart High school in 2020 in Central’s short switch to a Class B school.

In the team sweepstakes competition, Glacier High School from Kalispell won the Class AA trophy while Class A powerhouse Columbia Falls won the ABC sweeps.

“This was a really competitive tournament, and Class AA competition tends to have a different style from Class ABC schools, so it is tough,” Leeds said. “We have some students with enough skill and talent that they certainly could have placed, but I am glad they competed got the experience they did.”

Some Havre High debaters came close to making it into the singe-elimination outrounds that determine first through eighth place.

Varsity public forum debaters Dartanion Kaftan and Riley Klein, both seniors, went 2-3 and just missed a chance to break into outrounds. The event had 40 debate teams competing.

Kaftan, a fourth-year Havre debater, and Klein, in his second year on the team, defeated teams from Stevensville and Butte but lost to two Billings West teams and one from Columbia Falls.

First-year debaters Caitlin “Corbyn” Ehry, a junior, and Carinna Kline, a sophomore, pulled a win in their first round in Public Forum, competing against a team from C.M. Russell High School in Great Falls, but then lost close rounds to teams from Billings Skyview, Butte, Frenchtown and Bozeman.

Third-year Havre Lincoln-Douglas debater Paige Bertelsen, a junior, also came close in her competition in a field of 32 debaters. Bertelsen went 2-3, defeating debaters from Hamilton and Whitefish, but lost rounds against a Bozeman debater and two from Gallatin High School.

On the speech side, second-year Havre competitor Dever Everingham, a junior, came closest to breaking into outrounds for Havre competing in humorous interpretation of literature, which had 55 competitors, but could not quite break into the top 16 to compete for a chance to go into finals.

Havre’s other competitors in the speech events, all first-year speakers, also received some good marks and comments, but also did not make it into outrounds. Sophia Dawson, a junior, and Izabelle “Izzy” Hagen competed in Havre in dramatic oral interpretation of literature, which had 44 competitors, while freshman Sienna Dennis faced off against 78 other competitors in impromptu speaking.

Havre’s team has a weekend off this week before heading Dec, 18 to its last tournament before the holiday break.