04/03/13 The Plymouth Speech Team traveled to Fishers High School and competed with over seventy-five other teams from around the state who qualified for the state finals. The team emerged with a 2nd place finish in the Class AA competition and finished 3rd overall. The team has never finished outside the Top Ten at the State Finals since its inception during the 1980-81 season. The State’s Super Seven included Munster (AA team), Warren Central (AAA team), Plymouth (AA team), Chesterton (AAA team), Fishers (AAA team), Ben Davis (AAA team), and Culver Academies (AA team).
Plymouth’s lone speech state champion was Michaila Nate in Impromptu speaking. Nate also won a state debate championship in Congress back in February. Others earning First-Team All-State honors by finishing in the top three included Travis Tredway, 2nd in Drama; Pauline Dagaas, 3rd in Original Oratory; Michaila Nate, 3rd in USA Extemp; Christie Gorka, 3rd in Drama; as well as Shelby Pratt and April Bowen, 3rd in Memorized Duo.
Rounding out the PHS list of finalists were Travis Tredway and Chase Holzwart, 4th in Scripted Duo; Clayton Lenig and Jillian Smith, 4th in Memorized Duo as well as Shelby Pratt, 5th in Humor. Each of these individuals earned Second Team All-State Honors. All finalists endured three preliminary rounds of competition and two semi-final rounds prior to the final rounds.
The State Finals began with forty-eight entries advancing to the State Finals from the eight sectionals across the state. Plymouth advanced thirty-nine of its forty sectional entries to the state tournament at the Columbia City Sectional that it won on March 2nd. These thirty-nine entries competed in the three preliminary rounds at Fishers High School and twenty-two advanced to the semi-finals.
Plymouth’s non-advancing semi-finalists included Pauline Dagaas, 7th in Declamation; Chase Holzwart, 8th in Prose; Kylee Rippy, 8th in International Extemp and 10th in Impromptu; April Bowen, 9th in Drama; Gio Garcia and Yailin Rodriguez, 10th in Scripted Duo; Ellen Smith 12th in Impromptu; Gracie Gilbertson and Kalee Lowry, 14th in Scripted Duo; Gracie Gilbertson, 14th in Prose; Meghan Egierski, 16th in Declamation; Kate Peters and Tyler Wagner, 17th in Original Performance; Curtis Smith, 17th in International Extemp, and Becca Houser, 18th in Original Performance.
Other qualifiers to State included junior Savannah Mae; sophomores Emily Gadziola, Brantlee Joseph, Breanna Morrow, and Garrick Nate; as well as freshmen Melanie Cooper, Grace Cupka, Lauren Deisch, Maddy Deisch, Gabby Garver, Emily McKenzie, Elizabeth Polstra, Sara Smith, and Olivia Wendel.
If anyone would like to make a donation to the team, checks made payable to the Plymouth High School Speech Team can be sent to the attention of Charlotte Tyree (Performing Arts Dept. Chair) at PHS. Tax-deductible donations will be used to defray the expense of the state tournament and support those team members who were selected to represent Plymouth at either of the two national tournaments. Plymouth students were selected to represent Indiana at the NCFL Grand Nationals in Philadelphia, PA, in May as well as the NFL National Tournament in Birmingham, AL, in June.
