With six consecutive state championship titles under its belt, the Columbia Falls High School speech and debate team is in the hunt for a seventh state win going into the Class A state competition Friday and Saturday at Polson High School.

The top six competitors of each event from four divisional competitions held last week advance to state. Twenty-six students on the Columbia Falls team will represent the high school in the state tournament.

Head coach Tara Norick said the teams to beat this year are Stevensville, which beat the team only once during the season, Laurel and Billings Central.

After many seniors graduated last year, the young team began the season competing in one Class A tournament before jumping up to Class AA tournaments for the rest of the season. Norick said they competed with larger schools because the tournaments were closer and offered two days of competition, allowing for more students to gain experience competing.

“It exposes students to so many more competitors. I think it gives them a very solid foundation for both debate and speech,” Norick said.

With class finals and speech practice all in the same week, the days leading up to the state meet are very busy. Sophomores Mary Gross and Allison Foust, entered in Policy Debate, have been filling two portable file containers and a briefcase with as much research as they can on this year’s Policy Debate resolution: “The United States federal government should substantially increase its exploration and/or development of space beyond the Earth’s mesosphere.”

“I’m a geek,” Foust said. “I like Star Wars and Star Trek so this is a fun topic.”

Gross and Foust have prepared an eight-minute speech affirming the resolution. After the speech, their case will be cross-examined with questions. Then they must be prepared to cross-examine their competitors’ speech.

“That is what makes policy so hard. You have to be prepared for every possible answer,” Foust said.

Whitefish High School is one of the area Class A teams competing against Columbia Falls.

“The speech and debate team had a wonderful season with students improving each tournament and placing regularly. Placing second and third in sweepstakes points at a number of tournaments kept the team in the mix,” head coach Gary Carmichael said.

Whitefish is also a young team with mostly freshman and sophomores who are talented and enthusiastic about speech and debate, Carmichael said.

“It is such a pleasure for myself and assistant coach Sara Mueller to help these wonderful students find their voice,” Carmichael said.

Ten students from the Whitefish team will travel to Polson.

Whitefish sophomore Thomas Henson is looking forward to competing at a higher level in Policy Debate. He placed second in the Class A Northwest Divisional Tournament.

“You work hard and give it your all, but most importantly you have to have confidence in yourself,” Henson said about preparing for state. “The competition at state is much more intense but I feel coach has us well-prepared.”

BIGFORK High School will compete against Class B schools this weekend at the state tournament at Montana State University-Billings. Charlie Appleby is head coach for the team. Bigfork will bring 15 students to the competition and is expected to do well in memorized speech events, humorous oral interpretation and pantomime.

Bigfork sophomore Maddie Lorang will be competing in memorized public address.

“I prepare by practicing all the time,” Lorang said. “To practice I say my speech over and over at different times of the day and I give my speech to my coaches and family members. It is important for me to always be saying my speech so that I don’t forget any of the changes we make.”

Lorang said she is also looking forward to competing at the highest level.

“The state competition is so much different from the regular season because there is so much riding on every performance,” she said. “If you are lucky enough to make finals at state that will be the last time you perform your piece and that is a sad thing. It is also a huge relief to know that you are done and that you pulled it off and all the pressure is gone,” Lorang said.

Appleby said the first goal is to make semi-finals.

“If we are lucky and talented enough to be in the top 12, you hope for finals. After that it is just icing on a very big cake,” Appleby said.

He said the strongest competition will be Loyola with a handful of strong teams in drama events from the east and west.

Reporter Hilary Matheson may be reached at 758-4431 or by email at hmatheson@dailyinterlake.com