GRHS speech student ranked 13th in nation

Staying calm and having fun during competition is something this Green River student did to end up 13th in the nation.

Green River High School sophomore Jessica Petri competed at the National Speech and Debate competition in Dallas a couple weeks ago and came home 13th out of 64 in the big questions debate category.

“She made it to round 10, which is exceptional and in that round she lost on a split ballot, meaning one of the three judges voted for her,” head coach Carina White said.

Petri said big question debate is a new category and is an intersection between science, religion and philosophy. This year’s issue up for discussion was “humans are driven primarily by self interest.”

Petri is fairly new to this category and only competed at districts, but it was enough to make it to nationals. She said at districts it came down to her and someone from Jackson.

After an intense competition, the competitor from Jackson was given the spot to nationals, but he later qualified in another event.

“If you qualify in any other event, you can’t go,” Petri said.

For this particular category, one can only compete in it at nationals.

She hadn’t qualified for nationals in her other event, Lincoln Douglas debate, and didn’t think she’d be going.

“I was really excited because it was the last event they called,” Petri said.

Petri knew at least one from every state would compete in big questions. She also knew she was the only one from Wyoming in this category, yet she didn’t stress out.

“The goal was to have fun there,” she said. “In my mind, all the other kids have debated for seven years and some have professional coaches.”

A lot of the teams compete year round and a lot started competing when they were in middle school. She didn’t let that intimidate her at all and took a more laid back approach.

Petri just told herself, “I’m not going to worry about it. It will be fine.”

As the competition continued, other competitors would raise their voices at Petri to make a point.

“These kids would be like screaming at me,” Petri said.

Yet, she wouldn’t lose her cool.

“I’m more Wyoming style,” she said.

A lot of debaters are progressive and like to shout to get their point across, Petri explained, but she is more traditional and likes to remain calm while getting her point across. Her way seemed to work for her and she wound up taking 13th.