Another road trip produced another fourth-place finish for the speech and debate team.
The Green River High School Speech and Debate team traveled to Cheyenne this past weekend to compete in Cheyenne South’s tournament.
Cheyenne Central took first with 185 points, Cheyenne East took second with a lower 100’s score, Rock Springs grabbed third with 57 points and Green River claimed fourth with 50 points.
“We knew we would end up somewhere around there,” head coach Carina White said.
“We were missing about 17 students this weekend because state drama was the same weekend. We had a lot of success with the students in attendance,” she said.
White said the whole team won’t have a chance to compete together until the Cheyenne East tournament, which is scheduled to take place Dec. 14.
A few of the team members who competed this weekend stood out to White.
Danny Christensen and Caleb Ragsdale won cross examination debate and they are going to be strong competitors this season, she said.
Will Allen won humor. White said his piece is fantastic and he performs it well. All three judges in finals ranked him in first place.
Rebecca Shamer won a newer event called big questions debate.
This is a new form of debate the National Speech and Debate Association started last year. It is a shorter debate based off or a moral question of some kind.
The resolution this year is Resolved: Humans are primarily driven by self interest. It is a pilot debate and may or may not become a permanent event, White said. Students can debate by themselves or with a partner if they choose.
Like other school districts, Sweetwater County School District No. 2 is having to cut.
“We are feeling the impacts of budget cuts,” White said. “We lost our fourth coach to cuts this season. (Cheyenne) East is maintaining 100 kids that are actively traveling this season. Other teams have four or five coaches and we are working hard to do what we can and be competitive this season.”
White said other Wyoming schools have started offering debate as a class and that is an big advantage. The GRHS students do everything outside of regular school hours.
“We are a young team too; we lost a lot of seniors last year.,” White said. “I am hopeful that we will hold our own this season. We would love to come back from behind and show that GRHS shouldn’t be discounted.”
This week, the varsity team members will have a break from competition when they host the Green River tournament. The novice team members will still compete for extra practice, White said.
There are 12 schools scheduled to come to Green River for the tournament, which is scheduled to take place Dec. 7-8.
“There is a lot to do to prepare from organizational items to recruiting judges,” White said.
Cheyenne South results
Program Oral Interpretation: Olivia Nielsen, semifinalist
Lincoln Douglas debate novice: Audrie Harrison, second place
Lincoln Douglas debate: Jessica Petri, third place
Congress: Rachel Heisinger, sixth place, Matthew Pickering and Ramsey Taliaferro, semifinalists
Humor: Will Allen, first place
Poetry: Olivia Nielsen, second place
Extemporaneous: Hannah Thomas, semifinalist
Novice extemporaneous: Mia Worrell, sixth place
Big questions debate: Rebecca Shamer, first place
Cross examination debate: Danny Christensen and Caleb Ragsdale, first place
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