Speech team members took second at Morris on Saturday.

Speech team second at Morris

The Minneota speech team took a step out of their regular section competition and placed second out of 22 schools at the Morris Speech Invitational this past weekend. New London-Spicer won the meet with 68 points, while the Vikings finished with 65.

There were over 280 individual entries in the meet. Thirteen of the 17 Minneota entries reached the elite finals. Three of those placed first in their respective categories; Brenden Kimpe in Extemporaneous Speaking, Emma Lipinski in Great Speeches, and Zoe DeBoer in Storytelling.

“This was our second year attending the meet in Morris,” said Coach Kim Gades. “We always look forward to this meet because it is the first of the year for us that has three rounds and a final. It also gives the kids a chance to see some new competition and new judges during the season.” Kimpe and Jacob Haen finished second in Duo, while Sean Dilley was second in Informative. Placing fourth were Natalie Bot and Tara Thooft in Duo (their first meet of the season), Haen in Humorous, and Lipinski in Prose.

Tristan Bierschenk finished fifth in Discussion. In Original Oratory, Thomas Belaen was fifth, Katie Walerius sixth, Alyssa Engels seventh and Joey Clark eighth. “It was especially exciting for us to see categories where we had more than one entrant in finals,” said Gades.

“And Brenden, Jacob, and Emma all double-broke to finals.” DeBoer, who was a state entrant in Storytelling last year, earned her top placing for her story on Little Miss Muffet. Entrants in Storytelling randomly select three stories 30 minutes before they perform. “I chose this category because I can use multiple characters and insert my own humor into the pieces while still delivering a message,” DeBoer said.

“I have (Little Miss Muffet) offer her meal to the spider that sat beside her, but then she realizes what is beside her and screams.” In Kimpe’s category, Extemporaneous Speaking, entrants do not know what questions will be asked, so they try to research as many topics as they can throughout the season.

In the final round, Kimpe was asked “Has American culture become too safety conscious, thus overreacting to any possible injury situation? “At first, I was a little worried with it because I hadn’t done a ton of research relating directly to that questions,” Kimpe admitted.

“But I was able to tie it directly into topics I know, such as the cost of pharmaceuticals and insulin, mental health in the United States, and alternative health care plans.”   Lipinski is performing “Remarks at Memorial Day Ceremonies and Honoring the Unknown Serviceman of the Vietnam Conflict” by former President Ronald Reagan in her Great Speeches category this year. 

“Reagan’s message through the speech is that the sacrifices the soldiers made should never be forgotten, and we should continue to search for the missing solders until all are brought home,” Lipinski explained. “In his speech, he tells his audience that we should work to find the soldiers MIA because the families of those missing are suffering from not knowing what happened to them.”

Reagan’s speech is filled with emotion, and at the conclusion, the Congressional Medal of Honor is presented to the Unknown Soldier. 

“I chose this speech because you can’t argue that it isn’t great because we should give respect to those who served and died, and we should continue to work for those missing.”

Jr. High results

The Minneota Junior High speech team competed in Luverne on Thursday night. Ella Bot placed second in Extemporaneous Reading, Cora Fischer was second in Great Speeches, Reagan Bierschenk was third in Informative, Joey Clark was third in Storytelling, and Melanie Engels placed fifth in Storytelling.

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