Pierce Speech Team Takes Second at Boone Meet
by Emma Risinger
The Pierce High speech team set out for Boone Central, in Albion, on Saturday, January 22. The varsity team tied with Humphrey for second place with 25 points. The JV team placed third.
It was a long day of tough competition as there were many schools there such as Boone Central, Humphrey, Elkhorn Valley, St. Edward, Crofton, Wayne, Battle Creek, Ord, Leigh, Shelton, and O'Neill. Also, as opposed to the tournament consisting of two preliminary rounds, then finals for top competitors, everyone had three rounds, making it especially challenging.
As for individual placements, in persuasive speaking, Larissa Meier achieved second, Emma Risinger placed fifth, and Amelia Ahlers got second in JV.
Informative speaking was also a strong event for Pierce, with the team claiming four medals. Meier got second, Brielle Unseld placed fifth, Ahlers got third in JV, and Hadleigh Collison ended with fifth place in JV.
Hadleigh Collison, Pierce’s only first place ranking of the day, got first place in JV serious prose, while teammate Ella Gaes ended third.
In entertainment speaking, Zachary Price finished in second, and Shawn Zellmer got fifth.
When asked about some specific things he plans to give his focus to, Price said, “I guess for me personally I would like to enhance my comedic timing with pauses, one of my judges said, “pauses are my friends” and I couldn’t agree more. I suppose as a whole group what Ms. Fleer says is true, we shouldn’t get complacent and put the fact that we can rise up to our rivals and challengers first and foremost, never settle.”
Pierce also had medalists in duet acting including Nikolas Harvey and Unseld placed who fourth, while Ahlers and Collison made fifth place in JV.
Zellmer made sixth in varsity extemporaneous speaking.
Chelsey Ottis finished sixth in JV poetry.
Although there was a high number of individual placings, there were few that were in the top two or three in ranking. Head Coach Amy Fleer remarked on this and the day as a whole when she said, “It was a tough meet with lots of top teams, I’m proud we came away with second place. Our team received a lot of great feedback from judges, with lots we can work on this week in practice. My main goal is to see the varsity team memorized this week and more individual finalists in the top two.”
The Pierce High speech team is starting out the season fairly strong and plan to only get better. The next meet is Saturday, January 29, at Hartington.
