Battle Creek Classic Speech Meet
The Pirate Speech Team enjoyed a successful day at a very competitive 15-team Battle Creek Classic held on Saturday, Feb. 18th. Pierce earned the top honors in with 166 points and Plainview earned 152 points to bring home the varsity runner-up trophy. The JV squad also scored enough points to earn the runner-trophy in their division.
Battle Creek is the only meet that awards individual sweepstakes in addition to overall team sweepstakes. They track which students at the tournament earn the most points for their team, and acknowledge the top 6 point-earners of the whole tournament. Plainview’s Austin Choat earned the top individual sweepstakes. His points came from being champion in both of his events: duet acting with partner Autumn Ickler, and his humorous prose. Matthew Bonta, who was a champion in persuasive speaking and 4th place medal winner in his OID group’s presentation, ended up as the 6th highest point-earner out of over 200 competitors.
Plainview had a total of 17 events earning medals, which also included Nikki Mosel in both her events-- 2nd in informative and 5th in duet acting with her sister, Kylie. Both OID teams made finals. The group of John Novicki, Brittani Wacker, Morgyn Christiansen, Matthew Bonta, and Matt Hoffmann ended up with a fourth-place medal. And the group of Jake Lingenfelter, Adedamola Akinnigbabe, Carissa Wacker, Jacob Hoffmann, and Grace Hoffman earned fifth.
Also earning fifth-place medals: Kylee Jipp in serious prose; Elle Kment in informative, and Morgyn Christiansen in entertainment.
On the JV side of competition, Ashlynn Ickler was the individual sweepstakes winner. Her points came from earning a 2nd place medal in both of her events (poetry and serious prose). And Klarissa Norris was the runner-up in the top-point earning, individual sweepstakes category. Her championship finish in informative speaking and 3rd in OID helped her garner that honor. The additional OID team members Alexa Meyer, Abby Rafert, Becca Kment, Sophie MacGregor each came home with a third-place medal. In addition, Alexa earned a 5th place in persuasive speaking; Becca got 6th in serious prose, and Jordan Booth was 6th in persuasive speaking.
Other schools competing at the meet included Pierce, Battle Creek, Boone Central, West Point Guardian Angels, Howells-Dodge, O’Neill St. Mary’s, Lutheran High Northeast, Madison, Leigh, Laurel-Concord, Randolph, Shelby Rising City, Lindsay Holy Family, Clarkson, and of course, Plainview.