Speech finishes first in Kalispell

Whitefish students came out on top during last weekend’s Kalispell Classic speech and debate tournament.

The Bulldogs took first among the ABC class schools, fueled by three debaters in finalists and a first-place finish by Zach Ade and Ian Caltabiano in varsity policy debate. Dani Mayeaux and Ali Herschel took second in novice policy debate and Seth Carmichael and Zoe Dugan took second in public forum debate as well.

On the speech side, Danika Tintzman took sixth in humorous interpretation, Lucy Schindler took seventh in dramatic interpretation and Regan Tintzman took eighth in informative.

Whitefish finished with 77 sweepstakes points, ahead of second-place Loyola and third-place Columbia Falls.

Head coach Sara Mueller said despite bringing a small group to the tournament, her team performed much better than at the same invite last year.

“We were a smaller team this tournament and left a lot of point-scoring opportunities home,” she said. “Those who were there really pieced together stellar performances to win our classification and more than double our sweepstakes points from last year’s Kalispell Classic. This earned Whitefish the Most Improved Team Award, a unique award given at this tournament.”

Speech and debate will continue its season at Hamilton on Friday and Saturday.

Individual results:

Varsity policy debate: 1. Ian Caltabiano and Zach Ade

Novice policy debate: 2. Dani Mayeaux and Ali Herschel

Public forum debate: 2. Seth Carmichael and Zoe Dugan

Dramatic interp: 7. Lucy Schindler

Humorous interp: 6. Danika Tintzman

Informative: 8. Regan Tintzman

Sweepstakes for ABC: 1. Whitefish (77), 2. Loyola, 3. Columbia Falls