On Saturday, Feb. 10, Huntley High School hosted 27 schools for the 2018 IHSA Speech Sectional Contest.
Dekalb High School took first in the team sweepstakes, with Huntley following behind in second. Freeport, Cary Grove, and Byron High Schools placed in the top five as well, succeeding Huntley in that respective order.
The Raiders were able to send all 14 events from the regional competition, which was at Dekalb the previous week, on to sectionals. Out of those 14, 10 events qualified for finals after sectionals.
The first flight for the individual events began at 8:30 a.m. and continued on until 12:30 p.m.
Students flocked towards the east wall of the cafeteria when the finals were posted around 2:30.
The awards ceremony was held in the East Gym a few minutes behind schedule which, according to head coach Tom George, was due to holdups regarding a few minor protests and conflicts that were able to be resolved smoothly.
Competitors junior Braeden Clements and junior Christina Giorgi ended the day with a second place finish in Dramatic Duet Acting, qualifying them for the upcoming state competition next week in Peoria.
Joining the pair in Peoria will be senior Becca Zayas in Prose Reading, seniors Kate Emmel and partner Sophie Dowell in Humorous Duet Acting, and junior Kate Urosevich in both Dramatic Interpretation and Oratorical Declamation.
Senior Sarah Stolpe will be going to state as well, in both Original Oratory and Extemporaneous Speaking after a hugely successful season. She was notably sticking out as a frequent champion in Extemporaneous Speaking throughout the regular season.
Junior Sam Moore swept the competition away in Saturday’s contest with his Humorous Interpretation of a “The Merchandise King,” by author Clyde Hendrickson.
He delivered the witty, eight-minute piece three times throughout the day and earned himself a spot to compete in the finals. Moore finished first out of the six competitors and will continue to state with the rest of Huntley’s state qualifiers.
“It was a really long day,” Moore said. “It was my birthday today and this has by far been one of the hardest and competitive tournaments of the entire season. So to be able to compete and not only survive but qualify for state is the best birthday present I could have asked for.”
After a season of working hard and competing each weekend since late October, the Huntley Team is pleased with the results of Saturday’s contest.
“I thought the team performed really well,” George said. “Overall, I’m really happy with how we performed. I always would rather have everybody make it to state, but to get eight out of 14 is really good.”
