Speech Team Places Third at Wayne Classic
By Emma Risinger
On Saturday, February 4, the Pierce High speech team loaded up the bus for the Wayne High speech meet. Pierce’s team placed 3rd out of 20 schools, the largest meet they have competed at all season.
The tournament was set up a little differently than most: it had no varsity or JV divisions, so everyone competed together. The competition consisted of three preliminary rounds, in which all speakers participated. Following the third round, there was an additional final round for the top speakers. As there were many entries each event, there were three groups of final rounds in each event: champs finals (for the top 6 competitors), honors finals (for 7th-12th place), and merit finals (for 13th - 18th). In addition, duet also had a consolation round (19th - 24th.)
Starting with the speakers who made it into champs finals, in persuasive, Emma Risinger made 3rd place.
Bode Hoffmann placed 6th in entertainment, and Amelia Ahlers achieved the same ranking informative. Just ahead of Ahlers was Brielle Unseld with 5th place, also in informative.
Up next was Kaila Spieker with 6th place in humorous prose, along with Zaylah Pfanstiel who ranked 4th in poetry.
In addition to champs was merit finals, wherein Dalton Svoboda placed 8th in entertainment, Keli Shermer finished 11th in persuasive, and Risinger placed 9th in extemporaneous.
Mya Johnson ranked 10th in serious prose, and Svoboda and Spieker’s duet placed 9th. Pfanstiel, in addition to having placed in poetry, placed 9th in program of oral interpretation (POI).
Pfanstiel provided her thoughts on her performance when she said, “It was a shock that I made it into finals for both of my events, and I was very excited. I can’t wait to see how I start placing once my speeches are fully memorized.”
In merit finals, Noah Jones placed 14th in entertainment, followed by Ciara Garcia in 15th.
Also, Haiden Magnussen made 17th place in informative, Chelsey Ottis placed 18th in poetry, Ashley Wacker ranked 16th in serious prose, and Keli Shermer was 13th in POI.
The last of the merit finalists were Johnson, Alyssa Cederburg, Amber Shefl, and Madison Altwine in 13th place in OID.
Finally, in consolation, were Hoffmann and Isaiah Yarde with 21st place in duet.
As for the thoughts of the team’s head coach, Miss Amy Fleer, she was happy to see her team hold up strong at such a large, difficult meet she says, "I am very proud of our team's 3rd place finish! It was a long day of competition and the team kept their energy up and persevered through the end. As we move into the rest of the season, my goal is to see personal growth for everyone. We have a lot of people who have been receiving 5ths and 6ths, and I would like to see some more 1st and 2nd place medals. Our next two tournaments will be filled with high class competition, and I hope that we will be motivated by what we see around us and continue to step up to the challenge of doing our very best!"
The team will next be competing at David City, Saturday, February 11.
