The Chesterton High
School speech team won first place at the final regular season tournament of
the year, held at Valparaiso High School.
The tournament
offered 14 speech events and one debate event, and CHS took first in eight
of the 15 events in which it competed.
The eight
tournament champions: Ryan Donovan in big questions debate; Owen Cowsert in
broadcasting; Max Winski in dramatic interpretation; the team of Kaitlyn
Papka and Lillian Roberts in duo interpretation; Mark Jewison in impromptu
speaking;, Jenna Aguilar in informative speaking; Indigo Loving in original
oratory; and Bella Auricchio in U.S. extemporaneous speaking.
Donovan closed out
the big questions debate final against Chesterton's Sam Burris, who came in
second in a two-to-one judges’ decision.
In broadcasting,
CHS took the top four spots in the final round. Behind Cowsert were Emily
Krygoske in second, Jenna Aguilar in third, and Sara Vasquez in fourth.
Max Winski was
accompanied by teammate George Tracy in the final round of dramatic
interpretation, in which Tracy took fourth place overall.
CHS also closed out
the top three places in duo interpretation, with Roberts and Papka followed
by Loving and Winski in second, and Miranda Miller and Natalie Nu–ez in
third.
The final round of
humorous interpretation had two Chesterton finalists: Nathan Mullin, who
placed second, and Heidi Boltze, who placed fourth.
In the
write-as-you-speak event of impromptu, Jewison was joined by teammates
Auricchio and Mattea Sklut in the final round. Auricchio finished in third
and Mattea in fourth.
The two Chesterton
finalists in international extemporaneous speaking were Hamza Sahli and Madi
Simms, who placed fourth and sixth respectively.
Loving was backed
by teammates Emily Krygoske and Anna Sanders in original oratory, who closed
out the top half of the final by placing second and third respectively.
Loving placed first at each Indiana competition he attended this season.
Heidi Boltze
represented CHS in the poetry final, where she was the runner-up.
In the final for
programmed oral interpretation, Lillian Roberts took fourth and Dylan
Leavitt fifth.
McKenna Middendorf
was third and Anna Sanders fourth in the final round of prose reading.
Finally, the top
three spots in U.S. extemporaneous speaking went to Chesterton. Auricchio
was followed by Nick Hanson in second and Mattea Sklut in third.
Valparaiso offered
team trophies to the schools which scored the greatest number of sweepstakes
points, which are earned by competitors breaking to, and ranking in, finals.
Going into finals, Chesterton was tied with Munster, 48 to 48, but broke the
tie and won the tournament based on which school had the greater number of
individual champions.
“If this is any
indication of this team’s strength in a head to head matchup against schools
like Munster,” Coach Jacob Lukach said, “then our chances at next weekend’s
state qualifying tournament are looking good. The team is hungry for post
season.”
CHS has been
selected to host the state qualifying tournament--known as
“sectionals”--next Saturday.