Speech and Debate holds its own

The Lockwood High Speech and Debate team finally took to the road to compete in the first actual tournament that LHS has been a part of. There was a season last year, but it was entirely online, making it quite hard to get the true speech and debate experience. On November 19th, eleven students got on the van to Sidney after school. It took about 4 hours to get there with a dinner break along the way. When they finally arrived, they checked into their hotel and were then able to experience a little bit of team building while swimming in the hotel pool. At 7:45 am the following day, the team registered at Sidney high school for the tournament. The first round started at 8:30 am, followed by three more rounds, not including finals. After the 3rd round, everyone took a lunch break, with teams from other schools playing and doing other such games. There were nine members of the Lockwood team who advanced to finals. Two of the LHS competitors ended their first tournament of the season a little earlier than they had hoped, but everyone ultimately left on a high note as getting through the first tournament is always the hardest part of the season.

The only Informative speaker on this year’s team, Emily Brandenburg, finished in sixth place. Similarly, Lily Conklin advanced to finals in Dramatic Interpretation and also finished sixth. For Humorous Interpretation, Pierce Dotson finished in fifth while Ashley Sherrodd took eighth. There were three who placed in Impromptu: Elizabeth Buckalew in third, Madison Forney in fourth, and Draven Miller in fifth. Last but certainly not least, the one and only LHS debate team - Mayson James and Nevaeh Lee - took second in Public Forum. Good Job to everyone who competed in Sidney, and good luck with the rest of the season.