They had a thin squad heading into Polson. They still came home with a win. The Columbia Falls speech and debate team won the ABC sweeps at the Polson Invitational Saturday, with 119 points. Whitefish was second with 72 and Polson was third with 56.

The Cats were led by Annabel Conger and Colin Norick who took first in policy debate and Estevon Torres, first in dramatic interpretation.

Coach Tara Norick said the squad was light in numbers because many of the varsity speakers were either in or watching the state championship football game.

The Cats have a balanced attack this year, with good numbers of speakers and debaters.

“Our JV competitors made a strong push to polish their performance and land on stage. I was very proud of their effort this weekend,” Norick said.

The team has the Thanksgiving weekend off and then travels to Belgrade Dec. 3, where it should be at full strength, now that fall sports are over.

Here’s other results from Polson:

LD Debate

3rd - Tyler Brown

Public Forum Debate

3rd - Delaney Conger and Maggie McKeon

5th - Kaitlyn Little and Sarah Posey

6th - Cassidy Norick and Kelsey Wright

Extemp

4th - Danny Morgan

Impromptu

7th - Madeline Jarvis

8th - Danny Morgan

Oratory

2nd - Miranda Lauria

3rd - Flora Jarvis

8th - Kayla McDowall

DI

6th - Lizzy Olsen

Informative

4th - Danielle Rosenbaum

8th - Jacob Hohman