Farmington

After another week of hard work and practice, the Cannon Falls speech team set off to Farmington High School for the tournament on February 19. The speechies boarded the bus at 7 a.m. so they could include time for vocal warm-up exercises, led by the captains of the team. Then, they all set off to their rooms to speak in the first of their rounds. 

In every speech tournament there are three rounds, each judged by one person. The judge provides critique sheets, which can be important insight to the competitors on how to improve their speech, vocal style, and physical presence in the room. The judge also ranks speakers: a 1 for first place in a round, to a 5 for fifth place in a round. If there are more than five people in a room, speakers ranked lower are all ranked with a 5. Critiques are given back to the competitors after the tournament concludes, either written on paper, or online through a program called Speechwire. These suggestions and comments are extremely vital to speakers, plus they provide another perspective than coaches and teammates.  

The Farmington tournament was different from earlier tournaments the speakers have participated in thus far this season. They had a fourth final round for both novice and varsity speakers, meaning that the top six in each category went on to varsity finals, and the top six novice speakers (those who have never earned a varsity award) went to novice finals. Final rounds exist so that the tournament staff can determine awards for each category, as well as provide additional critiques and a tougher speaking environment than the first three rounds. Additionally, the varsity final rounds had three judges. Each judge ranks the round individually and their ranks are added together to determine each speaker’s exact placement. The novice final rounds were very similar to the first three rounds: there was one judge and their rankings were the final rankings in the novice division. 

The Cannon Falls team was very successful at the Farmington tournament. They earned second place as a team, and many individuals also received awards. Connor Loeschke in Great Speeches and Kendall Lawless in Drama were champions of their categories. Bianca Caputo in Info, Sophia Hanson in Poetry, and Jessica Baszuro in Prose all earned second place. Wil Brokate also earned second place in the novice division of Humorous. The Duo of Bowen Maki and Kendahl Zimmerman earned third place. Lauren Riz also earned third place in Storytelling. Ava Brokate in Extemporaneous Reading, Tristin Qualey in Poetry, and Sonya Milkova in Prose earned fourth place, and Lauren Capelle earned fourth place in novice Extemporaneous Reading. Meagan Pedersen in Creative Expression and Sara Auger in Storytelling earned fifth place awards. Grace Miller in Extemporaneous Reading and Aubrey Gustafson in novice Humorous both earned sixth place. Grace Churchill in Poetry earned seventh place and Jude Hines in Humorous and William Zheng in Info both earned seventh place in novice.

Red Wing

Arriving early at Cannon Falls High School on February 26, speech competitors prepared for the long day ahead. They were off to Red Wing High School to compete in the annual invitational tournament. Many arrived in their professional attire for the day, complete with breakfasts, sources of caffeine, and materials for each individual’s speech. Once everyone was there, they boarded the bus for the short ride. The bus was filled to the brim with excited chatter, while some speechies chose to pop earbuds in and catch a few more minutes of precious sleep. 

Once the speech team arrived at Red Wing, they dropped their things at “camp” in the cafeteria, or in the draw room in the library. Then, they gathered in a pod of rooms for vocal warmups. The warmups consist of tongue twisters, repeat-after-me songs, and characterized rhymes. After warmups adjourned, the speakers dispersed to practice their speech one last time before the first round of the day. 

The Red Wing tournament was slightly different from other competitions the speech team had been to this season. This was the first time that everyone was entered as “varsity” in the tournament. This means that there would be no separate divisions of ranks for speakers who hadn’t earned varsity awards before, also known as “novice.” Instead, the Red Wing tournament had finals for the top six preliminary scores in each category, and next-in finals for the next six people after the varsity finalists. Next-in finals were only offered in Creative Expression, Discussion, Drama, Humorous, and Poetry. The first three preliminary rounds and next-in finals have one judge for each round, and varsity finals have three judges each.

The Cannon Falls Speech Team was extremely successful on Saturday. They earned first place as an overall team with 248 points, and many speakers earned individual awards too. Champions of their respective categories included Sophia Hanson in Poetry, Bianca Caputo in Informative, Cannon Quade in Humorous, and Grace Miller in Extemporaneous Reading. Fletcher Churchill in Creative Expression, Kendahl Zimmerman & Bowen Maki in Duo, Lydia Pedersen in Extemporaneous Speaking, Angel Zheng in Great Speeches, Tristin Qualey in Poetry, and Lauren Ritz in Storytelling all earned varsity awards for second place. Meagan Pedersen in Creative Expression earned a next-in second place award. Kendall Lawless in Drama, Connor Loeschke in Great Speeches, and Grace Parks in Informative earned third place. Fourth place award winners included Grace Churchill in Poetry, Jessica Baszuro in Prose, and Samuel Coyle in Storytelling. Kayley Frenette in Discussion, Thomas Coyle in Great Speeches, and Sara Auger in Storytelling earned fifth place. Lauren Capelle in Extemporaneous Reading earned sixth place.