Speech takes silver in Hamilton

The Whitefish speech and debate team had one of its best showings of the season so far last weekend with three individual champions.

The team took second overall at the Hamilton Invitational, finishing behind Columbia Falls and ahead of Frenchtown.

Bethany Barnes took first overall in informative speaking, Aidan Reid won original oratory and Lucy Schindler took first in dramatic interpretation at the invite.

The duo of Stacia Tremper and Sophie Tabor took third in public forum debate, Abigail Bowden took third in extemporaneous and Danika Tintzman took third in both impromptu and memorized public address.

Eden Scrafford also took second in original oratory and Paetra Cooke third in informative.

Head coach Sara Mueller said the whole day was a team effort.

“The most impressive part of the weekend was realizing that every person sitting on the bus had scored sweepstakes points that led to a second place finish,” she said. “The momentum was obvious during the week of practice and culminated in our placings. I’m excited to head into the last month of season with a very solid group of competitors.”

The team gets back to competition on Jan. 11 in Frenchtown.

Individual results:

Lincoln-Douglas debate: 6. Luca Welle, 7. Elizabeth Campbell

Public forum debate: 3. Stacia Tremper and Sophie Tabor

Policy debate: 7. Jordan Hayes and Grayson Butler, 8. Gavin Carmichael and McKenna Ferril

Extemporaneous: 3. Abigail Bowden, 7. Bethany Barnes

Impromptu: 3. Danika Tintzman, 6. Adrienne Healy

Memorized public address: 3. Danika Tintzman, 4. Grace Benkelman, 7. Rachel Bowland

Informative: 1. Bethany Barnes, 3. Paetra Cooke

Original oratory: 1. Aidan Reid, 2. Eden Scrafford

Dramatic interpretation: 1. Lucy Schindler, 4. Gabby Pickert, 7. Logan Mercer

Humorous interpretation: 6. Eden Scrafford, 7. Logan Mercer

Sweepstakes: 1. Columbia Falls, 2. Whitefish, 3. Frenchtown