Speech team first at Jackson

Hot Springs County High School’s Speech and Debate team brought home their third first place win of the season from the Jackson Hole tournament last Saturday.

Putting up 50 points, the Bobcats were actually third overall for the tournament behind Riverton and Natrona.

Senior Breeze Petty had a stellar weekend in congress as the only competitor at the tournament to rank first in all three of her preliminary rounds, then topping it off with straight firsts in Super Congress to come out with a first place win for the tournament.

Petty also went into LD debate finals with a 4-0 record, only to lose on a split 2-1 ballot, placing her second for the weekend.

Another senior, Tyler Kay, had a busy weekend as well as he quadruple entered in humor, poetry, impromptu and LD debate.

Kay made it to semis in impromptu as well as LD with a 1-3 record. In addition, he placed second in humor and second in poetry.

The junior/senior duet team of Kris Lahoe and Kyle Mosser are showing strong, taking fourth place for the weekend.

Lahoe also competed in impromptu and poetry, making semi-finals in poetry with a 2,1,2 record.

Mosser moved forward with his humor piece as well, coming home with a sixth place medal.

Senior Hannah Hu continues her winning run in oratory, bringing home fourth for the weekend.

Sophomore and first year competitor Josiah Butler proved he can keep up with the best of them by making it to semis in extemp and then following that up with a third place win in Big Questions Debate.

Senior Katie Burrows was in top form, placing fifth in Impromptu.

Freshman Karina Lea, along with freshman Madeline Wagler also went to semi finals in Impromptu. Wagler also moved into semis in extemp.

“This was a great win for the team,” coach Cindy Glasson said. “We had four team members that couldn’t travel with us this weekend, but we should be full strength for the remainder of the season, so I feel things are just going up from here.

“We’ve got just three tournaments left before State and National Qualifiers and this team is right on track to do very well at both. Sure, we have some tweaking to do here and there like all the other teams across the state, but our strength right now is amazing.

“The freshmen and sophomores we have are learning from the best and their growth from the start of the season has been incredible. They’re putting in the time it takes to hone their craft.”

The team will be traveling to Greybull this weekend, followed by the Riverton tournament the 28th and 29th. As always, anyone who would like to see the team in action is welcome to come to the tournaments to cheer on the Bobcats.