First meet ends with 4th place finish

The speech and debate team ended its first meet with a fourth-place finish.

The Green River High School Speech and Debate Team traveled to Casper this weekend to start this year’s season.

Cheyenne East took first, Natrona County grabbed second, Rock Springs nabbed third and Green River came in fourth. Head coach Carina White said they took 41 students and they will continue to improve on their pieces.

“Students have worked on perfecting their primary event; now we need to add the secondary events. They also need to take the judge’s suggestions from this past weekend and perfect performances and debate cases,” White said. “It is very early in the season for us and we are gaining momentum. I am excited for what is to come.”

Even though the team has only competed once, some strengths are starting to show.

“We have strength in debate for sure and I believe we have strength in every event; we just need to really make some team goals and individual goals,” she said. “We also haven’t had the entire team present; students went to district clinic last weekend and state drama is the same weekend as our next tournament.”

Getting the first meet out of the way is always an important one for the team.

“It is important to get to a tournament to bond students together and get a sense of team unity,” White said. “It is also important for the novices to figure out what competition looks like.”

White said they are still trying to see how the team will do on the road and where their strengths are. She is anticipating it to be a very competitive season.

“We are looking forward to December when we are competing with all of our members,” White said.

The team will have a break from competition and practice over the Thanksgiving holiday, but they will return ready to practice on Monday, she said.

Casper results

Duet: Raymond Garcia and Katie Robinson, third place; Amber Gambles and Trista Parry, sixth place

Cross examination: Rebecca Shamer and Levi Hren, first place, Danny Christensen and Caleb Ragsdale, third place, top speaker: Rebecca Shamer

Novice Cross Examination debate: Jacob Wendel and Kallie Raney, second place, top speaker: Kallie Raney,

Extemporaneous speaking semifinalists: Caeden Grubb and Spencer Travis

Lincoln Douglas debate: Caeden Grubb and Jessica Petri close out tie for first place,

Rachel Heisinger, third place

Novice Lincoln Douglas debate: Levi Peterson, second place

Congress: Matthew Pickering, first place, Rachel Heisinger, fifth place, Rebecca Shamer, finalist