Speech team brings home third

The Bobcat Speech and Debate team came home from their first tournament at Kelly Walsh High School with a third place win in 1A2A.

Two-thirds of the team moved from preliminary rounds to semi-finals on Saturday with Kyle Mosser making finals in Drama, bringing home a fifth place finish.

Individuals who made it into semi-final rounds included Ashley Brawley in humor, Breeze Petty in informative, Aaron Hanson in POI, Tyler Kay in oratory and Lane Randall in drama.

Reilly Russell and Katie Burrows moved to semi-finals with their duet, as did Hanson and Randall.

"This really was an amazing first meet," coach Cindy Glasson said. "These kids have been working hard, even over their Christmas break, to be ready. Sure, there is always some nervousness with the first time out, but this team really rose above it."

There were 19 teams at the Kelly Walsh meet, including a number of 4A schools with very large numbers. The Bobcats only had 12 competitors at the tournament, yet managed to place 9th over-all.

"That says a lot for the talent these kids have," Glasson said. "Other schools may be bigger, but there isn't a team out there with the talent and drive these kids have to win. This is just the beginning. I can hardly wait to see what the rest of the season brings."

Petty also broke into quarter-finals in Lincoln-Douglas debate in a large field of talented debaters and finished with a 2-2 record.

"Breeze (Petty) has been a consistent and hard-working leader on the debate side of our speech program," said coach Lyle Wiley. "Its no small feat to break quarter-finals and make the stage in a tournament the size of Kelly Walsh in debate events, so we were thrilled to see her up there."

Petty's influence and leadershiip spilled over to Jacob Randall and Jean-Luc Willson's policy debate performance at the tournament. In the very first debate action for these freshmen, Randall and Willson finished with a record of 2-1 and nearly broke into semi-finals.

Individually, Willson missed moving into semi-finals in extemporaneous speaking by just two points.

The team will be heading to the Camel Classic in Gillette this Friday and Saturday.