.jpg)
HARTINGTON – The Wildcat Speech Team claimed the NSAA District C2-3 championship at Hartington- Newcastle Public Schools Friday.
The Wildcats medaled 18 entries, scored 294 team points and qualified 13 entries for State, as they took home top honors in nine of the 10 events. Crofton finished a distant runner-up with 224 points.
HNS will now head to Kearney March 27 for a chance at a second straight state title.
'This team really competed well as a whole today. All of the coaches are so proud of these kids,' said coach Kyle Stevens, who oversees the program with A.J. Johnson. They are assisted by Dylan Dendinger and Reece Morten.
Stevens said their success really shows how much hard work the team put in to be able to excel at Districts.
'They’ve worked hard all season to prepare for these moments. Each member of this team stayed focused to prepare for Districts and knew what it was going to take to be successful,' Stevens said.
Part of that preparation included having to wait two extra days in order to compete as bad weather pushed the event from its original Wednesday starting date back to Friday.
That didn't bother the competitors, though, said Dane Gotch, who has now qualified for State speech three times.
'The weather delays didn’t seem to have affected us,' he said. 'We were able to get one more night of practice in before Districts.'
That extra practice was important, as HNS had to compete against some very tough teams, Coach Stevens said.
'This was a tough District with several tough events and entries,' he said. 'It was important that we stayed poised and executed well, and each student delivered their best performances. When you have such tough competition, there will always be surprises and disappointments. Overall, though, each student on this team maximized their talents to represent themselves and their team well.' The state qualifying entries include the following competitors and events: Cole Heimes—Champion—Entertainment Ryell Haug—Champion—Poetry Lainey Morten—Champion—Humorous Issac Santiago—Champion—Serious Prose Hazel Hochstein—Champion—Informative Speaking
Hazel Hochstein—Champion—Persuasive Speaking Trevon Hopping—Champion—Program of Oral Interpretation Dane Gotch and Issac Santiago— Champion—Duet Speaking Cole Heimes, Lainey Morten, Jason Heimes, Gabe Reyes and Alyk Zach— Champion—Oral Interpretation of Drama Dane Gotch—Runner Up—Serious Cole Heimes and Lainey Morten— Runner Up—Duet Alyk Zach—3rd Place—Poetry Issac Santiago, Dane Gotch, Carter Kelly, Austin Sudbeck and Trevon Hopping—3rd Place—OID Other medalists include: Trynity Zach—4th Place—Extemporaneous Alyk Zach—5th Place—Humorous Jason Heimes—6th Place—Informative Gabe Reyes—6th Place—Extemporaneous Vayda Lippert—7th Place—Program of Oral Interpretation Dane Gotch is 0ne of several HNS competitors who have now qualified for state speech three or more times. He has taken a total of eight speeches to state over the years.
He feels prepared to make another run at a State title.
“We all work very hard all year to be able to go to State and give our best performance,” he said. “Every practice and speech meet has prepared us for this meet and I am very excited to compete at State.”
He is anxious to do his part to help keep up such a strong Wildcat State Speech tradition.
“All the students that came before have showed great leadership, and really set an example,” he said. “I think it is very cool to be able to have Coach Stevens as a coach as he was a part of the team that brought home our first ever state trophy in speech.”
Gotch and Heimes, who has qualified for State all four years of high school, were key competitors in both the 2024 state title team and the 2023 state runner-up team.
Heimes believes that kind of experience should really help the team when it gets to Kearney.
“The experience of going to State has definitely helped me in competitions. Because I have experienced it, I’m much more comfortable in situations like these. I am able to share that experience with my younger teammates to make them feel more comfortable, confident, and less nervous,” Heimes said.
Heimes said of all the events he’s done, the Oral Interpretation of Drama and his Entertainment Speeches are definitley the most fun.
“I enjoy OID because it’s so much fun to make people laugh with a group of people. I enjoy entertainment because I have been doing it since freshman year and it’s made a lot of people laugh throughout my high school career.”
While Heimes enjoys the fun and laughter, he knows none of it would happen without hard work.
“Our opportunity to return to Kearney and defend our state title is a testament to how hard we are willing to work and how driven our team is to winning,” he said.
