The Columbia Falls speech and debate team earned 45 tournament points to take the first place sweeps in the ABC category, easily besting rivals Corvallis and Loyola Sacred Heart at the AA tourney in Missoula over the weekend.

The tournament brought 31 teams together, including 22 Class AA schools.

“We work hard to attend as many Class AA tournaments as we can, where we pit ourselves against schools who are much larger and with much bigger resources,” head coach Tara Norick said. “It’s an opportunity to pit our talented kids against strong competition and really test their mettle.”

Although the overall tournament award is scored in class-designated categories, individual events mix all the competitors together, so Columbia Falls speakers are directly competing with large schools from across the state. In individual speaker events, Chloe Foster beat our all the AA and A competition in memorized public address to take first place in that event, and Joey Chester scored a sixth place in MPA.

Willie Baltz placed seventh in original oratory — where students present their own original persuasive speech.

In humorous oral interpretation, Jerilyn Jones placed third overall. Senior debaters Annabel Conger and Colin Norick made their Class AA tournament debut with a trip to the finals round and a second-place finish in policy debate.

“We are thrilled with the team’s performance against such powerful competition,” Norick said. “Next weekend we compete in Polson and this tournament helps us recognize the breadth of talent on this team.”

Other results included:

Novice Policy Debate

12th Kierra Brown and Shyane Williams

Varsity Lincoln - Douglas

9th Gabby Merrell

Dramatic Interp

9th Estevon Torres