Speechsters second at Kelly Walsh

The Bobcat Speech and Debate team started their season out with a second place finish at the Kelly Walsh Invitational last weekend in Casper.

In spite of illness taking its toll on the number of students able to attend, several on the team had an excellent first meet.

Topping the list was the Lincoln Douglas (LD) debate performance by senior Kameron Olsen.

Olsen was one of only two competitors coming out of preliminary rounds with a perfect 4-0 record. He went on to sweep semi-finals with a perfect 3-0, but unfortunately lost to a debater from Natrona County High School in the final round, giving Olsen second place over-all.

Olsen was also in the top 16 in extemp, but missed finals by a mere two points.

“Kam (Olsen) had a stellar weekend,” coach Cindy Glasson said. “Of the 46 competitors in LD, he managed to have a perfect record until the very last debate. I’ts an amazing way to start out his senior year.

“He’s definitely going to be the one to beat this year, I think. I’ts going to be interesting watching him and Darren (Leonhardt) go head to head this season.”

Leonhardt, who has attended the National Tournament two years in a row, is snapping at Olsen’s heels, not just in debate, but in extemp as well.

“Darren made it into the top 16 in extemp along with Kam, but he, too, didn’t make it into the final rounds,” Glasson said. “Although his ballots were exemplary, it all came down to speaker points and he was just shy of moving on.”

It wasn’t all about the debaters, however.

The duet team of Amanda Dinsmore and Eryn Robinson passed into semi-finals, but missed moving on into final rounds by two points.

“This is an amazing piece,” Glasson said. “Their first round, the judge was moved to tears and had to excuse himself to go into the hall and pull himself together. You always want to touch your audience, but they went way beyond that. I’m excited to see what they do with this piece.”

Dinsmore also made it to semi-finals in Humor, missing out on finals by a single point.

“That’s always a huge let down,” Glasson said. “One point. In Amanda’s case, though, it just means she’s going to work harder. We were going through ballots during dinner and she was already talking about changing this and that, figuring out what she can do to make it better.”

Dinsmore and fellow teammate Patience Moore just missed semi-finals in drama, too, both by three points. 

“Patience (Moore) is new to the team and is another one that is already talking about what she needs to incorporate into her piece for the next meet,” Glasson said. “Its great having kids that are so excited about speech and debate that they’re already working on what they’re going to do next weekend before we’ve even left Casper.”

School Board president Tobi Johansen stopped by Kelly Walsh to take in a couple of rounds as he was passing through town.

The Cats will be traveling to Gillette this weekend to compete in the Camel Classic at Campbell County High School.