Ronan speech, debate moves into divisionals

Lake County Leader

The Ronan High School speech and debate team has had two strong weeks of competition in January as the team prepares for divisionals in Three Forks this weekend.

At the Bigfork Viking Invitational on Jan. 10, in Humorous Oral Interpretation, Roman Hall took fifth and Ryan Dresen took third. In expository speaking, Bria Waldron took 8th place, and in spontaneous oral Interpretation of Literature, Jessie Lewis took first place, Ryan Dresen took third, and Jenna Janssen took fourth.

The team took second place in Class B/C Speech & Debate Sweeps with a team-best 38 points.

On Jan. 17, the Ronan team traveled to the University of Montana for the Loyola Invitational.  The results are:

Jessie Lewis, Spontaneous Oral Interpretation of Literature, first;

Roman Hall, Humorous Oral Interpretation, third; 

Ryan Dresen, Humorous Oral Interpretation, fourth; 

Ryan Dresen, Spontaneous Oral Interpretation, third; 

Samantha Friedlander, Humorous Oral Interpretation, eighth;

Jessie Lewis, Impromptu Speaking, eighth;

Jenna Janssen, Spontaneous Oral Interpretation of Literature, eighth.

The team scored second place in Class B/C Speech and Debate sweepstakes.

“As a team, we are doing as well as we can without beating Missoula Loyola, a team that has won the state championship 31 years in a row,” coach Amy Miller said. “We have several team members who have shown great improvement and who are on the cusp of breaking for finals. 

“The divisional tournament in Three Forks is Jan. 24, and we hope to get the majority of our team on the bus to the state tournament in Ennis on Jan. 30-31.”