GR speech team takes 4th at state

The speech and debate team came home from state with a fourth place finish.

The team traveled this past weekend to Riverton to take on the best Wyoming had to offer.

The Green River High School Speech and Debate team took 18 students to state this year and came in fourth. Cheyenne East took first, Cheyenne Central nabbed second and Rock Springs claimed third. GRHS missed out on third place by three points.

“It would have been nice to win state this year, but our team is young and they did a fantastic job,” head coach Carina White said. “Out of the entries we took to state, only four out of 20 didn’t break to elimination rounds.”

Green River had eight events in the final round. Cheyenne East ended up with nine entries in finals, Cheyenne Central had eight and Rock Springs had seven.

“It was a truly close race and I am happy with how things turned out. It came down to how teams finished.” White said. “My team work incredibly hard and they did such a amazing job at state we are rebuilding after losing so many talented seniors last season and the future looks very bright for our team. Eight of the students who competed at state are returning next season and several are sophomores.”

Two students not only stood out to White, but at state as well. Shelbee McFadden and Madi Young took first place in cross examination debate.

“This team has heart and drive and they showed that this weekend,” she said.

White said speech and debate is highly competitive in Wyoming right now and she needs to recruit more students to the team. She wants to work with GRHS theater director Bradlee Skinner to recruit some of his theater students to join the team.

“We need strength in all events and we didn’t have the numbers in those events that we have had in the past,” she said. “Worland and Riverton are absolute power houses in the acting events because the head speech and debate coaches for both teams are also the theater directors.”

Preparing for districts

The team will not have much time to prepare for the Wind River District National qualifying tournament, which is scheduled to take place in Rock Springs at Western Wyoming Community College on Thursday and at the GRHS and Lincoln Middle School on Friday and at GRHS on Saturday.

GRHS is co hosting with WWCC and on Thursday Congress and big question debate will compete. GRHS will then we host all the main events on Friday and Saturday. Because GRHS had to make up a half day this Friday the first two rounds with take place at Lincoln Middle School Friday morning and then teams will transfer to the high school for the remainder of the tournament.

“We are working these last few days to try to tweak cases and pieces and bring it to the next level,” White said.

She said they team is hoping for a pile of qualifiers for nationals.

The National Speech and Debate Association creates the districts and Wyoming has two. GRHS has competed with schools from this area and there are 19 schools in its district competing at this tournament.

“It is double elimination and is a very long and difficult tournament for those that do well enough to make it to the competition on Saturday,” White said. “Depending on how many entries the district has there are two or three qualifiers in most events.”

As for who will be competing at the tournament, the coaches decide based on several factors, including how competitive they are, their work ethic and seniority.

“Coaches decide who will compete and the number of entries each team receives is based off how many degrees students earn through competition,” she said. “No team can have more than four entries per event with the exception of Congress.”

This year, the team will have 12 Congress entries, two big question debate entries and 38 entries in other events.

“It is very difficult to qualify for nationals. The majority of students will compete all four years of high school and still not qualify,” White said. “There is also a team overall sweepstakes award, a debate sweepstake, Congress sweepstakes and interpretation sweepstake award. We have won many of these over the years and have won the overall sweepstakes for the last 10 years each.”

The team is hoping to do that again this year.

State Results

Cross examination debate: Shelbee McFadden and Madi Young, first place

Rebecca Shamer and Levi Hren, third place

Lincoln Douglas debate: Jessica Petri, quarter finalist

Rachel Heisinger and Mikkie Scott, octofinalists

Public Forum debate: Will Allen and Dallin Kurth, octofinalists

Matthew Pickering and Ramsey Taliaferro, quarter finalists

Congress: Rachel Heisinger, Matthew Pickering and Rebecca Shamer, finalists

Humor: Will Allen, fifth place

Program oral interpretation: Olivia Nielsen, fourth place

Extemporaneous: Spencer Travis, third place

Hannah Thomas, sixth place