After two long days of competing at Jackson’s Teton Invitational, the SVHS Speech and Debate team received a well-deserved 3rd place sweepstakes award for 4A schools. Several members of the team broke to semifinals and finals, with two members of the team placing in more than one event. Several personal goals were met at this tournament and the team is really looking forward to the upcoming Districts/National Qualifier and State tournaments.
Sophomore Porter Putnam (or “Portner” according to Jackson’s Oscar Andersen), broke to semifinals in Lincoln-Douglas debate. Putnam was the only debater from SVHS on stage, taking 3rd for making it to semis. Although she didn’t place, senior Mildred Hyde broke to supers in congressional debate. Hyde didn’t have a chance to give any speeches in supers, so she didn’t make it on stage, but breaking was still an achievement.
Two of the team’s humor competitors broke to finals. Sophomore Bailey Sperry celebrated a big personal win, taking 3rd place and placing over Rock Springs’ Jeremiah Bear. When asked about her achievement, Sperry said, “And especially to beat Jeremiah, I have wanted to beat him since I started speech and so when I was able to beat him it made me very happy.” Junior Marie Bateman celebrated yet another award in humor this season, taking 2nd place. “I was excited to break again, especially for how good everyone else was” said Bateman.
Senior Shaylah Frazier achieved a personal goal at this tournament, placing over another competitor who had been bragging about winning the last three tournaments she had competed at. Frazier took 1st place in original oratory with her speech entitled Being a Good Human Matters. “I was extremely surprised and shocked because it was only my second tournament, but I’m really proud of how I did because I put a lot of work into my piece,” said Frazier.
The team’s only duo interpretation competitors, seniors Fennec Burton and Aisley Ivie, broke and placed in multiple events at this tournament. The duo spent almost all weekend triple entered in D Pattern, running from event to event until finally meeting back up to perform their duo. Burton broke in two of his three events and took 4th place in drama with his piece My Perfect Feet by Andy Hobin. “My drama script makes it difficult to add blocking or a smooth flow of emotions. However it does have a good message,” said Burton. Ivie and Burton took 4th with their interpretation of the classic Disney movie The Fox and the Hound. Ivie broke and placed in all three events she competed in, taking 5th with her POI program Behind the Piano Man, and 1st place in original spoken word poetry with her poem Would She Recognize Me. Ivie said, “I was so surprised I broke in all of my events. I was happy but I was also so incredibly exhausted because I had spent the whole tournament triple entered. I’m glad I did, but I also felt like I would pass out mid performance.”
The team was incredibly proud of their win, and they hope to continue to do well as the Districts/National Qualifiers and state tournaments roll around. Everyone is going to continue to work hard on their pieces and do their best to continue putting on a stellar performance.
