Cedar Catholic finishes fifth at conference speech meet

HARTINGTON – The Cedar Catholic High School speech team spoke its way to a top-five finish at the 2024 Mid-State Conference Meet.

Cedar Catholic, which hosted the competition on Feb. 24 in Hartington, scored 80 points and finished in fifth place in the team standings. Boone Central placed first with 270 points, followed by Wayne with 238 points, Battle Creek with 108 points and Pierce with 84 points.

“That is a huge accomplishment, as we were only four points behind the fourth-place team,” Cedar Catholic head speech coach Jennifer Kleinschmit said of her team’s finish. “All of those teams are more than double the size of ours, so the fact that we are so competitive is a true testament to the hard work my kids are putting in.”

Cedar Catholic medalists at the conference meet were: - Sophomore Ava Stewart placed third in Informative Speaking.

- Senior Elizabeth Rokusek placed third in Program of Oral Interpretation and fifth in Poetry.

- Junior Ben Kleinschmit placed third in Serious Prose and sixth in Extemporaneous Speaking.

- Sophomore Breah Steffen placed sixth in Informative Speaking.

Cedar Catholic’s next speech competition is set for March 2 at Pierce.

Hartington-Newcastle is next scheduled to compete on March 2 at Scotus Central Catholic in Columbus.

Both Hartington-Newcastle and Wynot are set to compete on March 4 at the Lewis and Clark Conference Speech Contest in Osmond.