Ellis leads speech team

Whitefish speech and debate took third place in team sweepstakes points during its home tournament Saturday.

“Although not all of the 22 Bulldog team members made finals the experience at this very competitive tournament prepared them well for the upcoming tournaments and it was wonderful to have students with personal bests for the year,” said coach Gary Carmichael.

Hamilton placed first with 56 points, Corvallis was second with 31 points and Whitefish had 26 in the Class A speech sweeps.

Whitefish team captain Sloan Ellis took first place in impromptu speaking.

“All three impromptu competitors made it into finals which was great to see because we had four sections of impromptu with team captain Sloan Ellis being crowned Impromptu champion,” said Carmichael.

Also competing in impromptu, Bergen Carloss placed sixth and Sam Benkelman placed eighth.

Maddie Grady and Sage Jackson placed fourth in policy debate. Susanna Hoeglund placed seventh in serious oral interpretation.

“With more than 350 entries from 14 schools filling Whitefish High School and Muldown Elementary School we were very concerned about having enough rooms and judges for this tournament, but we are very fortunate to have had volunteers from across the valley generously fill 250 judging assignments,” Carmichael said.