Flathead High School capped its speech and debate season with a second-place finish at the National Speech Debate Association Regional Qualifier in Billings.

Nine Flathead students qualified for the national tournament.

Ten more Braves and Bravettes achieved alternate status for the national meet in Dallas this June. 

Bozeman High School edged Flathead 45 to 44 for first in overall team sweepstakes. Glacier High School, qualifying six students for the national tournament, finished 10 points behind Flathead to finish third in Billings.  

A scoring correction on the final day of the Montana District Tournament took first place from Flathead and gave it to the Bozeman Hawks. Flathead still topped the speech team scoring, but Bozeman’s debate team triumph allowed it to claim the overall sweepstakes win.

Flathead seniors Wyatt McGillen, Eli Cornell and Alaina Mothershead, juniors Sarah Ward, Maija Hadwin, Eli Brown, Wyatt Dykhuizen and Parker Kouns and sophomore Sophia Skwarchuk will travel to Texas this summer to compete at nationals.

McGillen and Cornell qualified in International Extemporaneous Speaking, Ward in Domestic Extemporaneous, Hadwin in Original Oratory, Dykhuizen and Kouns in Duo Interpretation, Mothershead and Skwarchuck in Lincoln-Douglas Debate and Brown in Student Congress Senate. 

Flathead last month won the Class AA speech and drama championship.

For Glacier, national qualifiers are seniors Harrison Kauffman and Wyatt Germann in Public Forum Debate, senior Erick Franklund and junior Ryker McIntyre in Policy Debate, junior Kyersten Siebenaler in Student Congress House and sophomore Brock Adkins in Original Oratory.

Greg Adkins, head coach of Glacier, touted his team winning the “traveling team trophy” that tallies accumulated scores over the years and resets a team’s score when it wins. 

“This award really represents the history of our program. Everyone who competed for the Wolfpack since we began in the 2007-08 season earned points towards this trophy. I couldn’t be more excited for our team,” he said. 

Six Flathead students have attended the national meet before. McGillen, Dykhuizen and Kouns will be competing in their third national tournament while Cornell, Skwarchuk and Hadwin will be attending their second national meets.

Alternates for Flathead are Ethan Hall and Nick Brooks in Duo Interpretation, Ethan Hall in Humorous Interpretation, Patrick Deterding in Dramatic Interpretation and Ashlie Wise, Steele Jochim, Kelsey Weed, Makenna Marvin, Stephanie Woodland and Zoe Dugan in Student Congress.

Alternates for Glacier are Spencer Johnson and Sarah Seynei in Public Forum Debate, Aidan Fritz in Original Oratory and Josie Jolly, Mitch Gilman, Lydia DalNogare and Grant Germann in Student Congress.

Columbia Falls High School senior Meredith Stolte was the top national qualifier in Oratory in Billings. Cody Phillips of Columbia Falls is an alternatea in both Extemporaneous events.

Stolte is a four-year speech and debate competitior with state titles in Oratory, Impromptu and Policy Debate.