Whippets Runners-Up In State Speech Meet

Seven members of the Minden Whippets speech team were at the University of Nebraska at Kearney on Thursday, March 22, for the NSAA Class B State Speech Meet. The Whippets finished on the podium in five events, good enough for their second state runner-up finish in the past three years.
The seven state qualifiers for Minden’s speech team were Ashley Chasek, poetry; Jared Sanford, informative speaking; Alex Raun, entertainment speaking; Jarod Speer and Jeremy Johnson, duet acting and humorous prose; Mackenzie Nelsen, poetry; Trevor Sorensen, persuasive speaking and extemporaneous speaking.
A total of 18 entries qualified for each category. Each student or team performed in two opening rounds, for two different judges. The top six from those rounds were then selected for a final round in front of three judges.
State champions earned their schools 20 points towards the team title. Second place earned 18, third scored 16, fourth scored 14, fifth scored 12 and finally sixth place scored 10 points.
Speer earned state runner-up honors for his humorous prose, scoring Minden 18 points. Raun, Sanford and Sorensen each added 16 points for third place finishes in entertainment, informative and extemporaneous speaking respectively and the duet of Speer and Johnson added 16 more with a third place finish in duet acting.
Minden’s total of 82 points was good for state sweepstakes runner-up, with Omaha Skutt Catholic taking the state title with 184 points. Gothenburg finished third with 66.

For more, pick up The Minden Courier