23 to compete at state speech

Local high schools will send 23 speech students to the 2012 state contest this week. All three represented classes including C-2, D-1 and D-2 will compete Friday, March 23, at the University of Nebraska-Kearney campus.

Both Bruning-Davenport and Shickley had eight students qualify while Deshler will send eight and Thayer Central will send two.

Six students, including Thayer Central junior Russell Heitmann, Bruning-Davenport senior Jacob McGinley, juniors Tara Pavelka and Nolan Schroeder and Shickley seniors Marissa Hochstetler and Anna Lichti will compete in two events each after collecting top wins at their respective district meets.

Heitmann, who returns to the state competition, qualified in both Oral Interpretation of Poetry and Persuasive Speaking after winning first and second respective places at the C2-1 district meet last week.

Pavelka collected D2-1 district wins in both Persuasive and Informative speaking to qualify for the state event.

Hochstetler will compete in Informative Speaking after earning the D2-1 district championship, then joins Lichti on the winning OID team which also includes junior Hannah Coy. Lichti claimed an individual second place win in Entertainment Speaking at the district meet to qualify for the  state competition.

McGinley and Schroeder will compete in Duet Acting after collecting a third place win at the district meet. They then join juniors Anthony Ferebee and Shane Heyen and freshman Jayden Otto on the OID team after winning the D2-1 district championship.

Shickley will send a second OID team to the state contest after the five freshmen members, Nathan Hendrickson, Samantha Plock, Logan Rosenquist, Megan Swartzendruber, and Kristen Troyer, took third place at the district meet.

Rounding out the state qualifying D2 competition are Bruning -Davenport’s Ashley Hinrichs, a senior who finished first in Extemporaneous Speaking and Emily Folkerts, a sophomore who finished second in the same event.

The Bruning-Davenport team ended the district meet in second place with 110 points while Shickley finished fourth with 85 points.

For Thayer Central, sophomore Rachael Fangmeier earned a trip to state after winning the championship at the C2-1 districts in Informative Speaking. The Thayer Central team finished sixth in a field of nine with 54 points.
Deshler, competing in the D1-1 district meet, finished fifth among nine schools with 60 points.

Qualifiers include seniors Krista Schardt, Amanda Petersen and Shannon Waite, junior Craig Meier and freshman Katelyn Pohlman. Schardt earned a championship in Informative Public Speaking to qualify for the state meet while Meier also won the Humorous Interpretation of Prose Literature division. Pohlman also collected a championship win in Entertainment Speaking while Petersen and Waite will compete in Duet Acting after winning third place at the district meet.

A complete schedule of all competitors and divisions for the state event is available at the NSAA (Nebraska School Activities Association) website.