On Saturday, February 10 the PHS speech team traveled to Osage Beach to compete in the School of the Osage speech meet.
This is their third regular season meet so far, including the MESA conference meet and the Mexico speech meet. The team brought 15 students to compete in 11 different events including humorous interpretation, dramatic interpretation, duet interpretation, duo interpretation, prose, poetry, storytelling, radio speaking, original oratory, informative speaking, and extemporaneous speaking. The students have been preparing their events since as long ago as October, and they have been working diligently to perfect their pieces for several judges. After two rounds of performances, scores are tallied to determine who is eligible for finals. Since there were so few entries, Duet and Duo competed in a third round instead of finals.
Sophomore Jesse Steele said, “It was a good opportunity for speech team members to experience a one-day tournament with new schools.”
At every speech meet the team with the most success can win sweepstakes. Points are determined by the total number of entries, number of finals qualifiers, and number of podium finishes. Potosi won first place in sweepstakes beating out Fair Grove and Bolivar. One of the biggest factors in sweepstakes is having the most events get first place at finals. PHS had four first-place winners: Juniors Allie Land and Magnum McCormack got 1st in Duet, Sophomore Macy Saunders and Senior Odie Jackson got 1st in Duo, Macy Saunders got 1st in H.I, and Senior Noelle Porter got 1st in Prose.
The speech team is still working hard to prepare for the rest of the season and the post-season start. After this meet, Coach Dement will decide on events to compete at districts on March 2nd for a chance to move on to state. The PHS speech team has had a very successful season so far, and they are extremely excited to see what is to come.
Below is a list of everyone who brought events to the Osage Speech Meet.
Caleb Carter – Radio Speaking (7th in finals)
Jaidlynn Gaines – Duo Interpretation (3rd in finals) and Dramatic Interpretation
Odie Jackson – Duo Interpretation (1st in finals), Dramatic Interpretation, and Radio Speaking
Allison Land – Story Telling (5th in finals), Duet Interpretation (1st in finals)
Khylee Luther – Dramatic Interpretation
Olivia Manning – Radio Speaking
Magnum McCormack – Duet Interpretation (1st in finals)
Kalissa Myers – Informative Speaking, Poetry
Noelle Porter – Humorous Interpretation (2nd in finals), Duo Interpretation (3rd in finals), and Prose (1st in finals)
Macy Saunders – Humorous Interpretation (1st in finals), Duo Interpretation (1st in finals)
Jesse Steele – Radio Speaking, Prose (4th in finals)
Andrea Stewart – Extemporaneous Speaking, Storytelling (2nd in finals)
Aaron Thompson – Prose (3rd in finals), Poetry (2nd in finals)
Timekeepers: Alexis Jarvis, Ruby Gibson
