Chesterton Tribune

 

 

CHS Speech and Debate team splits to compete

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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.

 

 

Posted 11/23/2016

 
 
 
 

 

 

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