Speech takes second to start season at Kalispell Kickoff

The Bulldogs speech and debate team got its season going at the Kalispell Kickoff last weekend.

Whitefish took second in Class A sweepstakes points behind Columbia Falls.

Abigail Bowden was the team’s leader, coming away as tournament champion in extemporaneous speaking with near-perfect scores from the judges.

Eden Scrafford and Logan Mercer also took third and fifth individually in humorous interpretation.

Aidan Reid took eighth in original oratory, as did the duo of Stacia Tremper and Sophie Tabor in public forum debate.

Head coach Sara Mueller said she was happy to see how things started for the team, who last year took second place at state.

“I’m proud of the strong start from our team,” Mueller said. “They’ve been putting in some serious effort among the academic pressures of the end of a quarter. We’re going to have to keep it up to compete alongside Columbia Falls and a very good Frenchtown team.”

The team travels to Ronan on Saturday.

Public forum debate: 8. Stacia Tremper and Sophie Tabor

Original oratory: 8. Aidan Reid

Humorous interpretation: 3. Eden Scrafford, 5. Logan Mercer

Extemporaneous: 1. Abigail Bowden

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