Speech team first at Greybull

It was another record breaking weekend for the Bobcat Speech and Debate Team as they traveled to Greybull for the Forensics Challenge. The speakers brought home first place for the third tournament in a row and placed second overall.

“This team is dominating the circuit right now,” said coach Cindy Glasson. “Saying I’m proud of these kids doesn’t even touch the way I really feel. They have worked hard to get to this point and have shown amazing stamina weekend after weekend.”

The Bobcats had 17 breaks into finals, once again having every student on stage, some in two or three events, a feat unheard of for teams with more than 10 participants. This was more breaks than last weekend even though one of the team members was absent.

“This whole team is scorching hot right before the culminating tournaments,” coach Lyle Wiley said. “I’m so very proud of the hard work that this team has put in, and this hard work is translating into success.”

Lane Randall placed third in humor and Katie Burrows placed fourth. Ashley Brawley missed breaking finals in humor by a single point.

In Oratory, Hannah Hu brought home a first place medal followed by Burrows with second and Tyler Kay in sixth place.

Aaron Hanson took third place in POI with his piece, “God Bless America”.

Kay also placed fourth in Poetry. Reilly Russell missed the poetry break by three points.

The team dominated in Informative as well, with Hu placing first and Breeze Petty bringing home second place.

The team’s freshmen were in Extemp finals with Jean-Luc Willson placing fifth and Jacob Randall, sixth.

Hanson and Lane Randall brought home third in Humor, followed by Brawley and Kris Lahoe in fifth. The team of Burrows and Russell missed the break by just two points.

Three members of the team brought home hardware in Drama – Russell, sixth; Lane Randall, fifth and Kay placed third.

Petty also made the cut in LD Debate this weekend taking third place honors with a 3-2 record.

Along with their 1A-2A win at the tournament, the team placed second overall with 69 points, edged out by 3A Worland by just eight points. Powell was ranked in third overall with 28 points, showing the Bobcats beat out every other 1A-2A team as well as all the 3A and 4A teams with the exception of Worland.

“These competitors won’t rest now, either,” Wiley said. “They will keep working to improve the little things en-route to these last tournaments. Hopefully, we can continue to landd breaks and keep our winning streak going at State and at the National Qualifier. This is a special team capable of a big time run here at the end of the season.”

“We are in an excellent place right now,” Glasson said. “These next few practices will be working on little things, tweaking pieces where there could be more movement or more expression.” The team has this weekend off in preparation for their State Meet which will be held in Riverton, March 7-9 and then its off to National Qualifiers in Rock Springs, March 14-16.