Junior high and high school forensics tournaments were held at Pittsburg High School on Saturday, April 11. Southeast fielded three junior students and 10 high school students in the separate tournaments, and returned home with 8 new medalists and one new state qualifier.

The junior high tournament consisted of students from Southeast, Pittsburg, and Colgan. Brooke Span and Peyton Simpson finished 5^th and 6^th, respectively, in Prose Reading. The high school team advanced six of its entries to finals in the high school tournament. Individual results are as follows: Ryley Slifka and Chandler Gravett- 6^th place, Duet Acting, Travis Myrick- 6^th place, United States Extemporaneous Speaking, Darcy Thacker- 6^th place, Dramatic Interpretation, Ashleigh Fleck- 3^rd place, International Extemporaneous Speaking, Chandler Gravett- 1^st place, Informative, and Kim Collins- 1^st place, United States Extemporaneous Speaking. Kim’s first place finish qualified her for the state forensics tournament being held May 1 in Wichita. 

This was the third tournament of the season for the junior high students. These tournaments are a way of introducing middle school students to forensics. The students are having a really good time competing, as well as gaining some valuable experience for when they enter high school. The high school team did well in its tournament, too. It was fun watching Darcy make it to finals for the first time. It was also fun seeing Chandler win 1^st place in Informative. This was a goal of his, and I’m glad he was able to accomplish it. Lastly, I was happy to see Kim win first place in United States Extemp. We’ve been working pretty hard on this, and it was nice to see that hard work does pay off.

Southeast travels to Chanute on Tuesday, April 14 for a tournament there before traveling to the last national qualifying tournament in Fort Scott on April 17-18.