Three Swedes step into winner’s circle

The Swedes held their own Saturday against a field packed with Class A schools but were edged out by Gering for the sweepstakes plaque.

Instead, the Swede speech team brought home a runner-up plaque.

Ten points separated Gothenburg from Gering at the end of a two-day debate and speech contest in North Platte Friday and Saturday.

Of the 26 schools competing, Gering ended with 410 points and the Swedes had 400.

Norfolk was a distant third with 210 points.

To be eligible for the sweepstakes award, schools had to compete both in debate and speech.

After Friday’s debate contest, Swede speech team adviser Dan Jensen said Gothenburg was in fifth place behind Norfolk, Gering, Lexington and Hastings.

“We knew Saturday that we would have quite a deficit to make up but Gering got too many students into finals for us to overtake them,” Jensen said.

Teaming up to win public forum debate Friday, with wins in five rounds in the novice division, were juniors Carlin Daharsh and Ashley Wilkerson.

On Saturday, Daharsh also received first in poetry in varsity competition and Betsy Potter earned gold in serious prose.

There was no novice competition on Saturday. After two rounds, qualifying students competed against each other in a championship round for the top six places and an honors round for places seven through 12.

Overall, Jensen said the Swedes performed “typically well.”

“In a few instances, we may have let the emotions of breaking (making) finals affect performances, but most of our students handled it well,” he said.

Sometimes, Jensen said competitors get the jitters or place too much emphasis on one round of competition.

“They can get intimidated by that,” Jensen said. “And sometimes I see kids get so disappointed about not breaking finals in one event that they perform poorly in the event that they did break in.”

Other schools at the meet included North Platte, Valentine, Thedford, Paxton, Kearney, Bridgeport, Grand Island, Ogallala, Julesburg, CO, Scottsbluff, Hastings, Maxwell, Wallace, Perkins County, Chadron, North Platte St. Pat’s, Callaway, Stapleton, Ainsworth, Lexington, Wauneta-Palisade, Hershey and Dundy County-Stratton.

This Saturday, the team travels to Grand Island Northwest for the last meet of the regular season.

Individual results are as follows:

Student Congress

Varsity: 4. Madison Costello

Public Forum Debate

Varsity: 3. Jon Rehmert and Kayla Trevino (four wins and one loss)

Extemporaneous speaking

Varsity: 4. Kayla Trevino, 6. Jon Rehmert, 8. Ashley Wilkerson; superior ribbons, Kristin Bartlett, Rebecca Miller

Persuasive speaking

Varsity: 3. Jon Rehmert, 6. Carlin Daharsh, 8. Madison Costello; superior ribbons, Kelsey Kuhlman, Alayna Collins

Informative speaking

Varsity: 3. Madison Costello, 5. Carlin Daharsh, 6. Rachel Rice, 12. Kennedy Wahlgren; superior ribbons, Kylee Beyea, Jessica Schmidt

Entertainment speaking

Varsity: 7. Dylan France; superior ribbons, Kelsey Kuhlman, Rebecca Miller, Bailey Gibbens, Rebecca Riley, Amanda Kowalewski

Humorous prose

Varsity: 3. Jon Rehmert, 5. Roman Schmidt, 6. Drake Langley, 9. Abbie Mazour, 10. Brett Mann; superior ribbon, Dylan France, Drake Brand, Kristin Bartlett

Serious prose

Varsity: 4. Abbie Mazour; superior ribbon, Rachel Rice, Kennedy Wahlgren, Bailey Gibbens

Poetry

Varsity: 12. Madison Costello; superior ribbon, Morgan Kowalewski

Duet acting

Varsity: 2. Drake Brand and Brett Mann, 8. Jett Seimer and Joseph Darling; 10. Amanda Larson and Morgan Kowalewski; 12. Alayna Collins and Amanda Kowalewski

Oral interpretation of drama

Varsity: 7. Morgan Kowalewski, Kayla Trevino, Alayna Collins, Amanda Larson, Brett Mann; 11. Ashley Wilkerson, Rachel Rice, Rebecca Miller, Kennedy Wahlgren

Also competing were Natalie Mazour and Alexis Brian.