The tournament may have been a smaller one, but the competition was tough.
The Green River High School Speech and Debate team traveled to Evanston this weekend to compete against eight schools and more than 200 students.
“They did a fantastic job; we took second place but we had a lot of competitors in elimination rounds and it gave us some solid data on the direction we need to go for the rest of the season,” head coach Carina White said.
Cheyenne East took first with 158 points, Green River grabbed second with 109 points and Riverton took third with 44 points.
“To earn over a 100 points and still not win speaks to the level of talent on East’s team this season,” White said. “We are very competitive with them though and when it comes to state and limited entries we have a shot. We will have to work hard and be strategic about our entries. We also need some of the 3A schools with interpretation talent to mitigate what East is earning in events like drama and duet.”
Green River continues to show its strength in debate. Three of the four public forum teams in the semifinals were from GRHS, while two of the four cross examination finalists were also from GRHS.
“There is always work to be done. Our interpretation events need to step up and fill the gap in points,” White said. “We lost a lot of interpretation (competitors) that graduated last season and we didn’t have many new students join. We are hoping next season to work closely with Bradley Skinner, the theater director, and recruit some of the talent he has cultivated in his amazing program.”
A couple of students stood out to White this weekend. Mikki Scott won informative for the third time this season, while Raymond Garcia has won humor the last two weekends in a row.
“This is a largely young team, they have a long way to go to be at the point level we have been in the past, but this group of talented young people have coaches excited about the future of this program,” White said. “We have a long history of winning and of state titles and I am making a prediction you are going to see a lot of those in the months and years to come.”
This weekend the team will travel to Casper for the Natrona County tournament. It will be one of the most difficult competitions they will attend. Almost all of the Wyoming schools are scheduled to attend and South Dakota schools will also be in attendance.
“More than 30 schools will be there and the pools for events are huge,” White said. “(Cheyenne) Central will be there and they have an amazing group of students this year. We have a lot of work to do this week to have a shot at even top three.”
The team will work hard this week during practices to prepare for the competitive tournament.
Evanston Results
Drama: Kami Lloyd and Will Allen, semifinalists
Extemporaneous: Hannah Thomas, fourth place, Dallin Kurth, fifth place, Spencer Travis, sixth place, Alex Shafe, Kassie Bolhmann and Levi Hren, semifinalists
Oratory: Jenna Robertson, second place, Spencer Travis, third place, Elijah Kropf, sixth place
Impromptu: Levi Hren, first place, Alex Shafe, third place, Levi Peterson, Jacob Wendel, Kami Lloyd and Dallin Kurth, semifinalists
Informative: Mikki Scott, first place
Poetry: Elora Siler, Olivia Nielsen and Hailey Cloward, semifinalists
Humor: Raymond Garcia, first place, Will Allen, fifth place, Elijah Kropf, semifinalist
Congress: Matthew Pickering, second place, Rebecca Shamer, third place, Ramsey Taliaferro and Rachel Heisinger, finalists
Public forum: Will Allen and Dallin Kurth, second place, Spencer Travis and Hannah Thomas and Matthew Pickering and Ramsey Taliaferro, third-place tie
Cross examination: Madison Young and Shelbi McFadden and Rebecca Shamer and Levi Hren, third-place tie
Program oral interpretation: Hayley Cloward, fourth place, Olivia Nielsen, sixth place
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