This past weekend, the Chesterton Speech Team attended Crown Point High School’s “For The Love Of Speech” tournament. The team faced competition from local schools and came out on top with 116 points. Chesterton brought 42 entries to the tournament and 34 entries broke into the top 6 in their events. Notably, two Chesterton students won both of their events, with Dylan Leavitt winning Programmed Oral Interpretation and Informative, and Gigi Hanner winning Broadcasting and Original Oratory.

The tournament had three preliminary rounds and one final round. Novice competitors competed alongside varsity throughout the day, but competed on their own in the final round. 

After every tournament (when Chesterton gets a sweepstakes trophy), one deserving student is selected to take home the trophy. The first-place sweepstakes trophy was given to Hanner by her coach Dakota McCoy after she won both of her events for the first time. “We love being able to acknowledge a student’s growth and their progression throughout the year. Gigi has been working incredibly hard all season and that came through this weekend.” McCoy stated.

Next weekend, the team stays local and heads to Valparaiso High School for the last tournament of the regular season.

The following students placed in the Top 6 in their events:

• Hannah Anders: 6th in Informative, 4th in Humor
• Katie Asbury: 4th in Original Performance
• Addie Botts: 2nd in Novice Poetry 
• Gretta Burke: 2nd in Discussion
• Julia Dietrich: 6th in Drama
• Freedom Eiden: 2nd in Impromptu, 2nd in International Extemporaneous 
• Gigi Hanner: 1st in Broadcasting, 1st in Original Oratory
• Riley Hawksworth: 4th in United States Extemporaneous 
• Josh Hoover: 3rd in Humor
• Sierra Hutchinson: 1st in Novice Broadcasting
• Lucas Koch: 4th in Novice Impromptu, 1st in Novice International Extemp
• Elsa Leady: 2nd in Novice Prose, 1st in Novice Humor
• Dylan Leavitt: 1st in Informative, 1st in POI
• Milena Letic: 2nd in Novice United States Extemp
• Damion Lopez: 4th in Novice Broadcasting, 1st in Novice Duo
• Matt Keane: 4th in Broadcasting
• Amelia Maguire: 4th in Novice Prose
• Alaina McGrogan: 1st in Novice United States Extemp
• Natalie Nuñez: 4th in Drama, 3rd in Original Oratory
• Nathan Osborn: 2nd in United States Extemporaneous
• Spencer Poole: 1st in Novice Duo
• Hamza Sahli: 3rd in Impromptu, 1st in International Extemporaneous
• Carmen Thomas: 4th in Novice Original Oratory, 1st in Novice Prose
• Sara Vasquez: 3rd in Broadcasting
• Sophia Worden: 6th in United States Extemporaneous