Seven WHS speech and debate members experience national competition
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The National Speech Meet Travel Crew stopped at the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix, Arizona. The crew include teams from Worland and Hot Springs County high schools.
Seven Worland High School students competed at the National Speech and Debate competition June 11-16 in Phoenix, Arizona.
Tessa Barnhill and Lucy Martinson competed together on a World Schools team, Lexani Damiano and Chase Johnson competed in cross-examination debate, Myles Lass competed in extemporaneous debate, Justice Nelson competed in original oratory and Jorden Valli competed in pro/con debate. They were chaperoned by assistant coach Emily Myers and head coach Rick Dorn during the trip.
With more than 6,000 students competing from schools across the country, it was an incredibly competitive event. Dorn said that despite the competitiveness of nationals the Worland students "all enjoyed some kind of success."
Lass had two wins and two losses in extemporaneous debate, an event that he had very little practice in according to Dorn.
He said, "Our policy team missed first break by one ballot. They needed eight of the 12 ballots but got seven."
Dorn added, "Lucy Martinson and Tessa Barnhill were part of a World Schools team that went two wins and three losses, but in those two victories, they managed to beat the team that would go on to be national champions."
Official results were not available at the time of press, but will be posted when they become available.
The Worland team travelled with teams from Laramie, Thermopolis and Rawlins on a bus driven by David Wiley, who Dorn said "did a great job for us."
While in Phoenix, outside of competing, the students got to enjoy themselves, too.
Although Worland students didn't get to compete in final rounds at the competition, they were able to sit in crowds of 2,000 to 3,000 people to watch final rounds of events that initially had approximately 700 entries.
Dorn said, "We took them bowling one night, we went to the mall, we went to see a baseball game (Arizona Diamondbacks), just a lot of entertainment stuff while we weren't competing. You try to let them see the big city and get that experience."
