Jacob Haen was the Humorous champion.

Haen, Dilley both champs

Minneota places third in Luverne Speech meet

Minneota seniors Jacob Haen and Sean Dilley were both champions at the Luverne Cardinal Speech Invitational on Saturday.

The nineteen schools competing in the meet brought over 240 individuals in the single-entry tournament, one in which students could choose only one category to compete in for the day.

Minneota, competing with a small group, was placed in the Small Teams Division and won third with 26 points, just three points behind Russell-Tyler-Ruthton and Tracy-Milroy-Balaton, which tied for first. RTR was declared the winner on a tiebreaker of most first-place category finishes. Haen won first in Humorous, while Dilley placed first in Informative, both receiving straight ones in the their rounds.

Haen’s speech topic this year centers around a nerdy Boy Scout named Timmy. “He chooses to work at a Boy Scout camp where he meets crazy counselors and troops,” Haen explained. “All of the different scouts have very different traits or personalities like hippie, blind, creepy, gangster, and that sort of thing.

“The other scouts at the camp try to push him around, but throughout the story he learns to stick up for himself.” Haen said he chose this topic after volunteering at a Boy Scout camp a few years ago.

“I may or may not have run into these personalities and I thought I could maybe use my experiences there to bring life to my piece,” he said. Dilley chose a topic at the beginning of the year, but tweaked it following some critiques by judges. “My topic is on how horror is a form of escapism,” said Dilley.

“I originally had my speech written on haunted houses, but I received negative feedback at the Marshall Spectacular, so I decided to change it, and that topic transferred over the easiest.”

Brenden Kimpe took second in Extemporaneous Speaking, Katie Walerius third in Original Ortory, Emma Lipinski placed fourth in Great Speeches, and Zoe DeBoer came in fifth in Storytelling. Three others from Minneota received ribbons for placing just out of the top six in their respective categories; Thomas Belaen in Storytelling, Cora Fischer in Great Speeches, and Wyatt Pohlen in Discussion.

Minneota will next compete in the Morris Lions’ Speech Club Tournament on Saturday.

Junior High

The Minneota Junior High Speech team competed in the annual Tracy-Milroy-Balaton Panther Junior High Tournament on Tuesday in Tracy.

Placing first for the Vikings were: Wyatt Pohlen, first in Discussion; Cora Fischer, second in Great Speeches; Ella Bot, second in Extemporaneous Reading; Reagan Bierschenk, third in Informative; and Joey Clark, sixth in Storytelling. Competing for the first time this year for Minneota were sixth-graders Carson Becker, Noah Harms, Addison Beach and Melanie Engels. The Jr. High team competes next on Tuesday in Luverne.

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