A time to celebrate: Generals speech and debate team ends tournament in top 20

  • By Sharon Haught
  • March 22, 2010
  • 825
                        
After thousands of hours of practice, hundreds of rounds and months of hard work along the grueling seven-month tournament trail, the Wooster High School speech and debate team capped off another strong season with a top 20 finish at the Ohio High School Speech League state tournament. The demanding three-day tournament, which was held at John Carroll University, Hathaway Brown High School and Laurel School outside of Cleveland, brought together 89 of the most competitive high school speech and debate teams in the state, if not the country, for two days of nonstop competition on March 5 and 6. Of the 89 teams competing, Wooster placed 17th, a remarkable feat for such a young but dedicated team. Between early season qualification for policy debate teams, the weather delayed the state qualifying Ohio High School Speech League Akron District tournament hosted by Wooster High School Feb. 12 – where Wooster was once again crowned district champion – and the second-chance National Forensic League Eastern Ohio District tournament held the following weekend, the team qualified a total of 36 competitors and three alternates for the state championships. When most schools are lucky to qualify a handful of students for the state championship, that’s nothing short of remarkable. Individual team members put in some terrific performances over the course of the state tournament. The policy debate team of Mara Weber and Maggie Eby placed third while Kellen Reusser placed seventh in the Humorous Interpretation category. A number of other team members, including Nicholas Angert, Lucas Burris, Ted Guttman, Elizabeth Kleinhenz, Matthew Kridel, Morgan O’Rourke, Laurel Thompson, and Kayla Villegas all made it through to octa-, quarter-, semi- or final rounds of the competition. Also competing at the state championships were Emily Alltop, Kelli Baxstrom, Daniel Cebul, Jenna Coppola, Martina Fraga, Megan Gant, D.R. Haught, Kyla Hemphill, Callie Hopkins, Taylor Jackwood, Kristy Kalikasingh, Lizzy Kalikasingh, John Maibach, Erika Miller, Rachel Myers, Abby Peabody, Michael Pinkham, Matthew Sparr, Tori Ungerer, Erin Vaeth, Jonathan Velasquez, Jessica Welty, Paul Williams, Austen Yorko and Chelsea Zhu with Sonja Dittmann and Becca Pittard serving as alternates. “This was a weekend to celebrate some terrific individual accomplishments,” said head coach Ned Lauver. “Weber and Eby have helped carry us for two years now, and our other debaters, interpers and extempers all turned in fine performances for such a young team. “The coaching staff knew that we faced an uphill climb in terms of team results, so we tried to place our focus on other areas,” said Lauver. “We have a lot of freshmen and sophomores who needed the developmental experience they received this weekend. We hope that it will translate into future success once they’ve had a chance to mature and grow into their roles on the team.” For some of the members of the Wooster team the competition season isn’t over yet. During the National Forensic League Northern Ohio Regional Tournament, three students – the Weber/Eby policy debate team and Reusser in the Humorous Interpretation category – were named as national qualifiers and three students – the Jackwood/Zhu policy debate team and Guttman in the category of International Extemporaneous Speaking – were named as alternates to the national tournament. When the competitors gather in Kansas City for the national tournament, Wooster students will be there for the 59th time, which is a record for all high schools across the country.


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