The Southeast Forensics Team competed in the first tournament of the season at Girard High School on Saturday, January 24. Southeast finished in 4^th place overall, with 15 schools competing. Nine of the school’s 19 entries advanced to finals.

Senior Aubrey Colvin, competing at her first forensics tournament, more than made up for her lack of experience with one of the strongest overall performances of the day. Aubrey competed in both Dramatic Interpretation and Poetry. In her three preliminary rounds of Poetry, Aubrey was twice ranked first and second once. Those scores were more than good enough to move Aubrey into finals where she finished in 4^th place overall. Aubrey also advanced to finals in Dramatic Interpretation, winning 1^st place overall and qualifying her for the state forensics tournament in May. Other finalists include: Kim Collins- 6^th place, Prose and 4^th place, United States Extemporaneous Speaking, Ashleigh Fleck- 4^th place, International Extemporaneous Speaking, Diane Bennett- 5^th place, Informative, Rachel Files- 5^th place, Dramatic Interpretation, Dietrich Smith- 4^th place, Humorous Interpretation, Will Chrysler and Daniel Schuller- 4^th place, Duet Acting.

The first tournament of the season happens so quickly, you never feel like you have enough time to prepare. I always encourage students to push themselves and go even if they don’t feel completely ready. I was very pleased to see them respond with such a large entry. I was also pleased to see almost half of our entries make it into finals. There are a lot of talented students on this squad, and if they put the work into it we could have one of our strongest seasons in recent history. I’m up to the challenge, and I believe they are too.