The Columbia Falls speech and debate team may have met its match. Hamilton beat the Wildcats by five points in Corvallis at a Nov. 8-9 meet.

“This lays out the competitive nature of the remainder of the season,” coach Tara Norick said. “Hamilton has a strong and balanced team across speech and debate, and we will be working to meet their challenge.”

The Wildcats were led by Mason Gedlaman with a first place finish in impromptu speaking and humorous oral interpretation. Cody Phillips notched a first place finish in extemporaneous speaking, and Baylee Brinton took first in expository speaking.

But the Cats didn’t have any first-place finishes in debate, where the team normally excels.

The team has a couple of weeks off and then travels to the Kalispell Invitational meet on Nov. 22-23.

Results from Corvallis:

Lincoln-Douglas debate

5th Allison Foust

Policy debate

8th Mara Barnes and Monique Schoech

Original oratory

4th Lexi Corbett

5th Casey Shea

Memorized public address

6th Alex Damon

8th Bailey Duke

Impromptu speaking

6th Cody Phillips

Expository speaking

3rd Yeo Chung

5th Samantha Gilk

Humorous oral interpretation

3rd Lexi Corbett

4th Jenna Smith

Serious oral interpretation

5th Bailey Duke

6th Garrett Role

Extemporaneous speaking

6th Henry Chisholm