The Chesterton High
School Speech and Debate team split its squad this past weekend, sending a
group of varsity team members to the 37th annual Glenbrooks Speech and
Debate Tournament. Another small group of novice and varsity students
attended the Charger Turkey Classic, held at Elkhart Memorial High School.
At the Glenbrooks
over 2,200 competitors from more than 200 schools representing 32 states
competed in the two-day national circuit tournament. All contestants
competed in four preliminary rounds before breaking to elimination rounds.
Most events started with anywhere from 110 to 130 entries. To make the break
contestants needed to be in the top 24 in their respective events.
CHS had only two of
its 14 speech entries break to the elimination rounds Ð two humorous
interpretations. Leading the way was senior Izzy Portugal who advanced
through quarter and semifinal rounds to earn a spot in finals. Portugal
ended up finishing fifth in the nation. Junior Josh Hogan advanced through
quarterfinals to semifinals in humor and missed advancing to finals by just
one point. He finished seventh in the nation.
“We had some good
preliminary scores in all events, but humor was the event where we were most
consistent. We’re really excited for Izzy and Josh, but I think this was a
good learning experience for all of us,” Coach Fleming said.
Coaches Kayla
Fleming and Eric Schaefer took the team to the two day tournament. They were
assisted with judging duties by former student Sam Lee.
The Elkhart
Memorial tournament was attended by 16 schools with more than 200 entries.
Despite only having 12 entries, CHS still managed a fourth place finish as a
team. CHS had three novice champions and one varsity champion.
Junior Paige
Donovan took top honors in varsity dramatic interpretation. Others placing
in the varsity division included sophomore Anjali Dzarski, second in
original performance; senior Bailey Valtierra and sophomore Skylar Noschese,
fourth and fifth, respectively, in programmed oral interpretation and
sophomore Spencer Summers, fourth in discussion.
The novices
dominated dramatic interpretation, taking three of the top four places.
Freshman Max Winski was the tournament champion, followed by fellow freshmen
Steve Skelton in third and Indigo Loving in fourth.
Freshman Alan
Stirling was the tournament champion in novice prose interpretation, and
junior Amber Johnson was the novice champion in humorous interpretation. In
addition, senior Riley Syren placed fourth in novice poetry.
“The few we had
here today really did a great job. Our novices had an especially good day,”
said Coach Becky Uehling.
Plymouth High
School won the tournament with 225 points. They were followed by Concord in
second with 138 points and Valparaiso in third with 118 points. CHS finished
fourth with 69 points and Dekalb was fifth with 68 points.
Joining coach
Uehling to help with judging were parents John and Melissa Valtierra.