This past Saturday, the Chesterton High School Speech team hosted the first tournament of the Indiana speech season. Chesterton hosted 5 schools and over 100 competitors: a battle between Bishop Dwenger HS, Carmel HS, Chesterton HS, Crown Point HS, Culver Academies, and Plymouth HS.
The Chesterton tournament offered both varsity and novice divisions (the equivalent to JV) in a total of 15 different events. In the speech and debate community, it’s the norm to host only once or twice a year, so Chesterton likely won’t host another speech tournament until next season.
In Broadcasting, Carmen Thomas (12) placed 2nd in the varsity division. Damion Lopez (12) placed 3rd. Via Wheeler (11) placed 5th. Co-Program Director Aaron Drew and Coach Jacob Lukach worked with all of them.
In Improvised Duo, novice competitors Luci Thompson (9) and Annebell Haas (10) placed 3rd.
In Informative Speaking, Dex Trzaska (12) placed 4th in varsity. This is Trzaska’s third consecutive season competing in Info, and he’s coached by Co-Program Director Dannielle Hunt.
In Original Oratory, Thomas placed 4th in the varsity division. Her performance is also coached by Hunt, and this is Thomas’s third year in the event.
In Poetry Interpretation, Thompson, coached by Drew, was the tournament champion in the novice division. Haas secured 2nd place, and is coached by CHS teacher Joshua Coots.
In Programmed Oral Interpretation, Maddi Morton (12) placed 2nd, and is also coached by Drew. This is her second year in POI.
In Prose, Hunter Yankauskas (9) placed 6th in the novice division.
In the final sweepstakes competition, Plymouth High School took the championship with 100 total points across all events. Culver Academies placed 2nd with 69 points, closely followed by Bishop Dwenger High School with 60. Traditionally, the school hosting the tournament removes themselves from the sweepstakes competition, so Chesterton wasn’t ranked among the visiting schools.
The speech team thanked the judges and parent volunteers for their volunteer work in judging at the tournament.
Despite a decrease in the usual size of the team, the speech team began the season with a strong start. Next week, they travel to Bishop Noll Institute in Hammond, Indiana to compete.
