Reaching Above and Beyond

     After winning their 19th sectional championship in 20 years and fourth at state, the Warren Central Speech season has now come to a close.

     “It was a really nice end to our year, and it felt amazing because it showed how much improvement we made from last year,” senior Evan Shaw said. “We usually get second or third at state, but last year we won sixth, so it was nice to work our way back up.”

     At state, senior Hillary Gordon won both second in Program Oral Interpretation (POI) and fourth in Humor. Shaw made it to the semi-finals in Discussion, while junior Naila Teliz got to the quarterfinals in the same category. Sophomore Branson Dao earned fourth in International Extemporaneous and made it to the semi-finals in Impromptu. Senior Alaea Bowman made it to the quarterfinals in Original Oratory and Impromptu. Sophomore Carian Perez made it to the quarterfinals in POI, and sophomore Alexa Wildridge got to the quarterfinals in Prose, while junior Ashley Martin made it to the semi-finals in Prose.

     “Winning sectionals meant a lot to our team, and it was a very rewarding experience. Last year, we just missed the chance of winning sectionals, so our team put in a great deal of work during practice after school to make sure we got back to our tradition of winning,” speech coach and history teacher Ethan Maurer said.

     On March 7, the team participated in a team-building retreat to get focused and prepared for the competition. Going into state, the speech team won their sectionals by about 80 points and qualified all of their members to compete.

     “We were very proud as a team to win sectionals again. It showed that all of our hard work had paid off,” junior Kianna Ernst said. “I felt decently confident about state for the overall team. My goal was to make it into at least quarter finals in at least one of my events.”