The Chesterton Speech Team won its first tournament of the year at the Munster Varsity Speech Invitational this past weekend. Fourteen schools and nearly 300 students took part in the highly competitive tournament. CHS had 24 of its entries place, in the top eight places in each event and three individual event champions.

The team was led by the performance of senior Spencer Gordon who won international extemporaneous speaking and placed second in impromptu speaking. Senior Kiera Quealy was the tournament champion in original performance, her second consecutive win. Senior Eric Dreischerf was the champion in broadcasting.

Broadcasters had a good day with junior Nate Dickinson coming in second, followed by sophomores Robert St. Pierre and Galen Wong who were fifth and sixth, respectively.

International extempors also did well with junior Andrew Caratini placing third, sophomore Andrea Drygas in fourth, freshman Tim Vincent in sixth, and senior Salman Lakhani in seventh.

In memorized duo the team of senior Jennifer Kattalia and junior Layla Mooradian placed fourth, followed by senior Aliyah Caraballo and junior Danny Vincent in seventh, and junior Liz Green and sophomore Jake Williger in eighth

Mooradian was also second in declamation, Kattalia was seventh in both original oratory and drama, and Green was sixth in poetry.

Like Kattalia, junior Mikaela Meyer also placed in three events. The team was allowed to triple enter four students and took third in declamation, sixth in drama, and eighth in original oratory.

Senior Kaylee Oates took fifth place in humor.

In discussion senior Ronnie Kovach was second and sophomore Eric Zhong was seventh.

"This was a good "team" win. Having a number of debaters cross over to speech events was a big boost, but we had a number of students do well across the board," said Coach Bob Kelly.

CHS took first with 93 points, followed by Plymouth in second with 46. Ben Davis was third with 37, Valparaiso, was fourth with 17, and Concord was fifth with 17. Munster, as the host school, did not take a team award.

Joining coaches Bob Kelly, Doug Pishkur, Kirsten Reed, and Eric Schaefer was former student Jessica Cleary.

In addition, parents Melissa Coleman, Alice Meyer, Jim Vincent, Carol Kattalia, and Toya Garcia all helped with judging.

Posted 2/12/2013