The Minnesota State High School League (MSHSL) State Speech Tournament is being held virtually this Friday and Saturday.  Some area students are competing in Class AA Friday and Class A Saturday.

AA competition begins approximately 4:00 p.m. Friday with the Awards Presentation beginning at 10:45 p.m.

Class A competition starts 9:30 a.m. Saturday with the Awards Presentation at 4:45 p.m.

In Class AA there are some Big Nine and South Suburban Conference representatives.

In Creative Expression:  Competitor, school and speech selection

  • Benjamin Gonyea  Lakeville North                       "A Golden Opportunity"
  • Elinor Sayers         Lakeville North                       "Walk A Mile in Heels"
  • Thor Reimann        Eastview, Apple Valley           "The Memory Project"
  • Emily Nyberg         Lakeville North                       "A Pear Shaped Predicament"

In Discussion competing are:

  • Sierra Pieper                      Rochester John Marshall
  • Nadia Kuxhausen Ralph    Northfield
  • Fardouza Farah                 Owatonna
  • Julia Schowalter                Eagan
  • Ellie Sprinthall                    Eagan
  • Allison Champ                   Eastview, Apple Valley
  • Aerin Engelstad                Eagan

Duo Interpretation Area Competitors include:

  • Alice Hovendon/Colin Roberts Eagan "The Entire History of You" by Jesse Armstrong
  • Frank Knier/Jonah Johnson     Apple Valley  "A Steady Rain" by Keith Huff
  • Anna Haug/Annika Kjer    Rochester John Marshall   "The Audition" by Don Zolidis
  • Lars Andersen/Olma Wakjira   Eagan       "A Time to Kill" by John Grisham
  • Jasmine Haidar/Laura Schile   Eastview    "The Miracle Worker" by William Gibson

Extemporaneous Reading:

  • Kat Kruse                                  Farmington
  • Olivia Beach                             Eastview, Apple Valley
  • Hanisa Pasupuleti                    Eastview,
  • Megan Copeland                     Owatonna
  • Ritisha Senapati                      Eastview, Apple Valley
  • Bridget Schaber                      Eagan
  • Elise Olson                              Northfield

Extemporaneous Speaking:

  • Tharika Arunkumar                  Lakeville North
  • Bianca Turman                        Eagan
  • Vikash Giritharan                     Eastview, Apple Valley
  • Allison Hering                          Eastview, Apple Valley
  • Rachna Balasubramanian       Lakeville North
  • George Faseemo                    Rochester John Marshall
  • Gavin Davis                             Mankato East

Great Speeches Category:

  • John Novack                  Eagan       DEUS VULT by Pope Urban II
  • Nimisha Bora                 Eastview   Valley New Nationalism by Teddy Roosevelt
  • Maimuna Aden              Rochester John Marshall   House Floor Speech on Yoho                                                                       Remarks by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
  • Adriann Drenk        Lakeville North  Donald Trump Riot Speech by Donald Trump
  • Heden Abdulahi             Eagan        Yippie Workshop by Abbie Hoffman
  • Wanwa Omot      Eastview  Declaration of Conscience by Margaret Chase Smith
  • Shania VanLewin   Lakeville North   First Senate speech on Immigrants by Kamala Harris

Humorous Interpretation

  • Aiden Clayburn    Lakeville North   Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed by Mo Willems
  • Madeline Rock     Apple Valley       How I Survived Camp Cooties by Megan Orr
  • Jacob Miller          Lakeville North   Office Space by Miks Judge
  • Ellie Scheldberg   Burnsville           Mary Choppins by Frank Joseph
  • Julia Christenson Owatonna           Sealed for Freshness by Doug Stone
  • Sophie Todaro      Apple Valley       Homeschooled by Jason Pizzarello

Informative Speaking

  • Ainsley Plucker    Eastview              Who Run the World?
  • Katelyn Caulder    Lakeville North    As Good As Gold
  • Sophie Green       Apple Valley         Liquid Gold
  • Audrey Bowen      Lakeville North    Male Bodies: We Are At Your Cervix
  • Ceceilia Voss        Apple Valley        Work Worth Seeking
  • Lauren McCutcheon Lakeville North      I’m Not Ovary-acting

Original Oratory

  • Lydia Voss             Apple Valley         Good Grief
  • Gintare Piscikaite   Lakeville North     Not Just the Comics
  • Jihan Abdi             Apple Valley           A Promethean Task
  • Pooja Kasam        Eagan                    The Right Word for It
  • Grace Bowen        Lakeville North      Scarletrocious
  • Krystal Mutebi       Lakeville North      Implicit Bias:The Sickness in Need of a Cure

Serious Interpretation of Drama

  • Ashlyn Cox           Farmington            Accidently Brave by Maddie Corman
  • Grace Guetschow Mankato East    The Wrong Kind of Nightmare by Pamela Love.
  • Hanna Olson        Eastview                Girls & Boys by Dennis Kelly
  • Zoe Lewis             Burnsville           My Knight in Dull Armour by Pete Malicki
  • Jackson Hemann Owatonna         I Hate This (A Play Without the Baby) by David Hansen
  • Audrey Schwartz   Eagan                Apples in Winter by Jennifer Fawcett
  • Cooper Roberts     Apple Valley       My Life by Bruce Joel Rubin
  • Alaina Deutsch       Lakeville North  The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion

Serious Interpretation of Poetry

  • Manasa Yerriboyina Rochester John Marshall  The Hill We Climb, We Weep With the Moon: Dedication to Benazir Bhutto, Who's Yellen Now, Notorious (R.B.G.), DR. BIDEN. PERIOD by Amanda Gorman, ears2hearyou, Dessa, Leslé Honoré, Leslé Honoré
  • Sebastian Matte     Eastview      Control Alt Delete: A Program Featuring “Touchscreen”, “Look Up”, “Genuine Connections”, and “The Internet Speaks Back to the Author” by Selected Poems by Marshall Davis Jones, Gary Turk, Tyler Knott Gregson, and Phil Kaye
  • Sophia Trenary      Farmington    Gaslight: A Program by Tatyana Brown, Lyd Havens, Rachel McKibbens, Edwin Bodney, Natasha Hooper, Bianca Phipps, Karina Stow
  • Kai Wilson             Eagan          Just A Typical Day (A Program): Social Media, How Do You Raise a Black Child, Internet War, Glimpse of Reality, Lady Liberty, Citizen & songs by various artists by Reflectionzero, Courtney Lamar Jackson, Hailey Ngo, Danielle Bigsby, MV, Claudia Rankine, Meek Mill, Kendrick Lamar, and Childish Gambino
  • Ankita Gurung        Lakeville North      I Am Not Your Model Minority by Michael Chem, Jay Ojano, Alex Dang, and Rachel Rostad

 

Serious Interpretation of Prose

  • Alyson Hasner       Lakeville North        Pour Your Soul by Mira Ptacin
  • Emily Melville         Apple Valley       The Girl Without a Face by Randall and Hailey Hicks
  • Morgan Oksendahl   Eastview          Know My Name: A Memoir by Chanel Miller
  • Jay Tie                    Lakeville North    The Bitter Taste of Dying by Jason Smith
  • Trinh Nguyen          Eagan                 Monkey Bridge by Lan Cao
  • Maria Michaelson   Apple Valley       Inside Out by Demi Moore
  • Annika Kingsriter    Lakeville North   Now I See You by Nicole Kear
  • Evelyn Gore           Eagan                What is a Girl Worth by Rachael Denhollander

Storytelling

  • Ria Koppikar          Eastview
  • Kiley Snobeck        Farmington
  • Ella Erdahl             Eastview
  • Jada Lapastora      Eagan
  • William Laudon      Rochester Mayo
  • Olivia Moeller         Mankato East
  • James Eiden          Eagan
  • Akansha Kamineni Eastview
  • Marina Deutsch      Lakeville North
  • Kayli Breen             Eagan

Class A Competitors from the KDHL region:

Creative Expression

  • Meagan Pedersen  Cannon Falls     High-Functioning Flirting
  • Duram Kelly            Mankato Loyola    An Informative Soap Opera
  • Elizabeth Schieffelbein Chatfield       Happily Ever After and Other Fairy Tale Falsehoods
  • Kaylee Arndt           Fillmore Central      The Tale too Terrible for a Title

Discussion

  • Abbigail Kutz           Maple River, Mapleton
  • Teagan Strecker      Cannon Falls
  • Richard Sylak          Zumbrota-Mazeppa

Duo Interpretation

  • Haylee Gunderson/Sebastian Rappe Randolph   That’s Not How I Remember It by Don Zolidis
  • Peyton Ellis/Sydney Ellis          Chatfield       Sealed for Freshness by Doug Stone
  • Kiri Kerekes/Paige Atherton    W-E-M            Flowers by Katherine Vaughan

Extemperaneous Reading

  • Grace Miller                   Cannon Falls
  • Noah Lippert                  Maple River, Mapleton
  • Meghan Kosmala           Stewartville
  • Aizlynn Thim                  Cannon Falls

Extemperaneous Speaking

  • Lydia Pedersen              Cannon Falls
  • Zach Groh                      Janesville-Waldorf-Pemberton

Great Speeches

  • Alex Heuss                 W-E-M     A Time to Break Silence by Martin Luther King Jr.
  • Angel Zheng          Cannon Falls   Dear Class of 2020 Speech by Michelle Obama

Humerous Interpretation

  • Eric Daschner        J-W-P           The Secret Knowledge of Grown Ups by David Wisniewski
  • Emma Watson      Cannon Falls   Lil Greasy Tator Queen by Clint Snyder
  • Kressin Hartl        Cannon Falls    Miss Beth by Don Zolidis
  • Savannah Berg    Minnesota New Country School, Henderson   Hyperbole and a Half by Allie Brosh
  • Rebecca Copeman   Chatfield         Nora Wants a Baby by Forrest Musselman

Informative Speaking

  • Bianca Caputo           Cannon Falls           Putting the Fun in Funeral
  • Matthew Giese           Cannon Falls          Environmental Ice Cream

Original Oratory

  • Addi Oliver                   J-W-P                   That Uncomfortable Feeling
  • Savannah Ruiz            Maple River          Hegemonic Masculinity
  • Sophia Culuris             K-W                      Brick Walls
  • Sami Pollack       Minnesota New Country School, Henderson   The Poison Embedded in Everyday Phrases

Serious Interpretation of Drama

  • Rachael Fields         Maple River               Argos by Elizabeth McCutcheon
  • Jocelyn Machtemes LeSueur-Henderson  Casualties by Sandra Dempsey
  • Merrik Giesen          Belle Plaine        Bright. Apple. Crush. by Steve Yockey
  • Catherine Williamson    Pine Island           Amanda by DonnaMarie Vaughan
  • Kendall Lawless      Cannon Falls             Guilt by Krystle Henninger

Serious Interpretation of Poetry

  • Rachelle Boelter      LeSueur-Henderson  Kait Rokowski, Akeemjamal Rollins, Meggie Royer by Kait Rokowski, Akeemjamal Rollins, Meggie Royer
  • Conor Salmonson   Cannon Falls           Heterophobia: A Poetry Program by Ragan Fox, Jess Howard, Blythe Baird, June Jordan
  • Presley Sue Borgmenn Minnesota New Country School, Henderson   My Mother’s Addendum; Mans/laughter; My Grandmother Asked Why I Don’t Trust Men by Olivia Gatwood
  • Abreeana Reasor   LeSueur-Henderson        To This Day by Shane Koyczan
  • Melanie Winzenburg   Blooming Prairie    When the Towers Fell by Galway Kinnell

 

Serious Interpretation of Prose

  • Jessica Baszuro     Cannon Falls              Almost Home by Christine Gleason
  • Alex Menne       Mn New Country School, Henderson  Stolen Moments by Janet O’Neill

Storytelling

  • Bradley Budach     Janesville-Waldorf-Pemberton
  • Zenessa Anderson        Rushford-Peterson

Take a look at these.  Some are jaw dropping wouldn't you agree?

Celebrity Kids Who Look Exactly Like Their Famous Parents

 

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