Havre speech competes in Choteau

Press release

Havre High School speech and debate took a team depleted by illness and conflicts to compete Saturday at the Choteau High School Tangled Tinsel Tournament, and even with a small team saw success.

Havre was the only Class A school at the tournament as Browning had to cancel at the last minute, but the tournament saw teams from all classes of competition, Class C through Class AA.

For Havre, senior Sterling Shelton, a second-year Lincoln-Douglas debater, went the furthest, taking third in his event.

Shelton lost a close debate first round against a Jefferson County High School debater, then won his second round against a Helena High School debater. He drew a bye his third round, and his 2-1 record tied him for breaking into the finals round to compete for first and second place, but lost a tie-breaking procedure by just two speaker points that kept him from a rematch in finals with the undefeated Jefferson debater.

Senior Paige Bertelson, a fourth-year Blue Pony Lincoln- Douglas debater, lost her first two rounds, first to a debater from Simms then to the Jefferson debater who defeated Shelton the first round. Bertelsen came back to win her third round, against another Jefferson debater, to end in fifth at the tournament.

Two other Havre debaters competed in speech events because their partners were not able to compete in Choteau, and just missed the top eight.

Freshman Lyvia Little competed at her second tournament for Havre in humorous oral interpretation of literature and ended in a three-way tie for seventh place. Little lost a series of tie-breaking procedures to decide who would end up in the finals round, and took ninth at the tournament.

Junior Carinna Kline, competing at her second tournament in impromptu speaking, also just missed breaking into finals and ended up in 10th place at Choteau.

Havre speech and debate now takes the holiday weeks off and returns to competition Jan. 7 in Shelby, before preparing for the eastern divisional tournament Jan 21 in LIvingston, where students will compete to earn a trip to the Class A state tournament, in Sidney this year Jan. 27-28.