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OSMOND – The Hartington-Newcastle High School speech team spoke its way to success at the 2024 Lewis and Clark Conference Speech Contest.
Hartington-Newcastle won the team title at the conference meet, which took place on March 4 in Osmond, with 292 points, followed by Plainview with 196 points, Wausa with 136 points, host Osmond with 112 points and Wynot with 50 points.
“We had a great day,” Hartington- Newcastle speech coach A.J. Johnson said. “I’m very proud of the progress we’re making as a team. We have a tough conference and those finals had a lot of kids who will do very well at Districts and State.
“We had an outstanding judging panel who gave us many suggestions for improvement,” he said. “It will be our job now to implement those suggestions to get ready for the District meet.”
Hartington-Newcastle is scheduled to host the District C2-3 speech meet on March 11. Other teams set to be there are Ainsworth, Bloomfield, Boyd County, Cedar Catholic, Neligh- Oakdale, Ponca and Summerland.
As for the conference meet, there were two sets of individual finals during the contest – the top six finishers in the Champs Final and the next six finishers in the Honors Final.
Hartington-Newcastle’s medal winners in the conference meet’s Champs Final were: - Entertainment Speaking: Junior Cole Heimes, first; senior Alexus Hans, fifth.
- Informative Speaking: Senior Kennedy Gotch, first; sophomore Hazel Hochstein, fourth.
- Persuasive Speaking: Senior Emma Wubben, first; senior Alexus Hans, third.
- Poetry: Senior Kaylee Ptak, first; junior Ryell Haug, third.
- Humorous Prose: Sophomore Lainey Morten, second; freshman Trevon Hopping, fifth.
- Serious Prose: Sophomore Dane Gotch, second; sophomore Issac Santiago, fourth.
- Duet Acting: Seniors Mani Lange and Dayton Sudbeck, third; sophomores Dane Gotch and Issac Santiago, fourth.
- Oral Interpretation of Drama: Junior Cole Heimes, freshman Jason Heimes, senior Mani Lange, sophomore Lainey Morten and senior Dayton Sudbeck, third; sophomore Dane Gotch, freshman Trevon Hopping, sophomore Carter Kelly, sophomore Issac Santiago and freshman Austin Sudbeck, fifth.
- Program of Oral Interpretation: Senior Kennedy Gotch, fourth; sophomore Trynity Zach, sixth.
- Extemporaneous Speaking: Freshman Gabe Reyes, sixth.
Hartington-Newcastle’s only team member in the conference meet’s Honors Final was sophomore Trynity Zach, who placed first in Extemporaneous Speaking.
In addition to the conference meet, Hartington-Newcastle took part in a triangular with Scotus Central Catholic and David City on March 2 in Columbus, but it was a noncompetitive event during which participating teams received feedback on their performances only.
For the Wynot High School speech team at the conference meet, senior Isabelle Heimes placed first in Program of Oral Interpretation and third in Serious Prose in the Champs Final, while junior Joslyn Hochstein placed fourth in Entertainment Speaking.
