OK Suprises

The OK meet was a small affair, but it still contained its surprises. Here are some of the highlights:

• Broadcasting
  Tom Tyrell took third, and a trophy!
• Extemp
  Catherine Khuss took second, and earned her first 1/100 of the season.
• Impromptu Open
  Christina Le dogged Josh Boerman the whole day. She took second.
• Informative
  Riet Groenleer took a second place trophy and earned her first 1/100 of the season.
• Oratory
  Esther Creswell was first. Her best so-far!
  
• Sales
  Cally Willette took third. There was a smile for you.
• Impromptu 9/10
  Evan Vanderhoff came in first!
  Walter Gilles brought home a third place trophy
• Dramatic Interp
  Celeste Kessler continued her winning was with a third place
• Duo
  Newcomers Haight/Roeland made it to finals and a third place finish!
• Multiple
  Sweet Smell of Success not only took second, but beat GR Christian's Dead Men Walking in round one. Way to go!
• Poetry
  Sharon Hays' hard work paid off with a third place finish

Congratulations to all our winners!

Mattawan Results

On Saturday, March 22 we headed for Mattawan. Everyone did. We had a full house, complete with a bus. It was a good day to work on pieces, as well as complete class assignments. So how did we do?

Finalists
Christina Le (Impromptu Open) -- 5th
Evan VanderHoff (Impromptu 9/10), his first time! -- 5th

Semis:
Esther Creswell (Oratory) -- her first time in Semis!
Gilles/Jin (Duo)
Tom Prangley (Storytelling) -- his first time!
Nate Ritsema (Broadcasting
Tom Tyrell (Broadcasting) -- his first time!

Out for the First Time:
Tom Prangley (Storytelling) * Tiffany Kilts (Storytelling) * Raven Barnes (Prose) * Rain Johnson (Duo, with Montana Welton) * Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants (Rebecca Hansen, Lauren Wisely, Jordan Kopecki, Allegra Parseca) * Evan Vanderhoff (Impromptu) * Tom Tyrell (Broadcasting) * Javier Orozco (Broadcasting)

Our average score: 96.37
Better than the week before, but still reflects the youth of our team.

WOHO Results

Some went north, some went to Solo & Ensemble, and the rest went Holland High School on March 15. There were several pleasant surprises.

Finalists
Gilles/Jin (Duo) -- 7th
Catherine Khuu (Extemp), her first time! -- 7th

Semis
Dan Hast (Oratory), his first time!

Out for the First Time
Ann Brown (Poetry) * Sarah Reimink (Storytelling) * Montana Welton (Poetry) * Erin Freeman (Storytelling) * Jessi McKellar (Prose) * Amber Goodrich (D.I.) * Tabitha Haight/Pagiel Roland (Duo) * Steven Eden/Catherine Sternberg (Duo) * Colleen Knox / Jennifer Shamel (Duo) * David Caselletto (Impromptu)

With so many new, our average score was down: 96.07.

Portage Results

There were lots of good things about Portage: we had a chance to take along some of our new students, and our experienced performers had a chance to strut their stuff.

For those of you who love metrics, the measure we use for each tournament (and for the season) is the average score / round. For Portage our score was 96.18.

Welcome First Timers!

• Aja Kilgore, Poetry • Emily Oxfford, Prose • Walter Gilles, Impromptu •Margaret Root, Extemp

Return to the Semis
Gilles/Jin (Duo)

Our Final Round Performers

• Christina Le -- 3rd, Impromptu 9/10 • Nate Ritsema -- 5th, Broadcasting (his first final round of the season!) • Catherine Khuu -- 5th, Extemp (her first time ever in the Finals)

And S-o-o-o Close to a Sweepstakes.
Rankings of 1, 2 or 3 go into the sweepstakes tabulation. We ended up one point shy of third place. We're off to a great season!

Christian High Results

Christian High was smaller than Frankenmuth (250 kids or so), but with both Portage Central and Portage Northern in the room, the competition was every bit as fierce.

We brought seven competing, mostly in PA. Here's how we did:

Finals
Christina Le, Impromptu (5th!)

Semis
Riet Groeenleer, Informative (7th -- so close!), Nathan Ritsema (10th)

First time
Manuel Garcia, Impromptu; Kayla Milanowski, Poetry.

Adding to their Experience
Catherine Khuu, Extemp; Sharon Hay, Poetry.

From here on out the competitions get tougher. Next up will be Portage Northern.

Back from Frankenmuth

Saturday was our first Forensics tournament of the 2008 campaign. We had six students take their pieces "out of the box:"

• Christina Le -- Impromptu 9/10
• Catherine Khuu -- Extemp (her first in this piece!)
• Riet Groenleer -- Informative
• Nathan Ritsema -- Broadcasting
• Sharon Hay -- Poetry (her first IE piece!)
• Brandy Andresen -- Prose

Experience paid off with several students taking seconds in their rounds, and with Christina moving into the semi-finals. Congratulations.

Next up: Christian.

Results from State

Last weekend was a big one for the Congressional Debate Community. More than 90 students from 15 different high schools got together at the downtown campus of GVSU. By the time we got to the Super Session (finals) we had some of the top speakers in the State. As you can expect, the chamber explored the bills in depth. In fact, only two were debated: The Habeas Corpus Act of 2008 which owould extend habeas corpus rights to detainees at Guantanamo, and a Bill to Encourage the Use of BioFuels -- principally a subsidy measure for ethanol.

City was able to have four students in the final chamber of 24: Christina Le, Catherine Khuu, Nathan Ritsema, and Riet Groenleer.

Nathan Ritsema was PO for the first half of the session when the session debated Habeas...

When it came time for awards, three of the top ten were from City:

• Christina Le -- 4th
• Nathan Ritsema -- 5th
• Riet Groenleer -- 10th

Congratulations! In a tournament that had more than doubled, City more than held its own.

A Second Trophy

Saturday's event at Portage Northern was again satisfying for City High. With 9 of 22 schools in the "Large School" Category, City High took third in Sweepstakes points, behind Grand Rapids Christian and Portage Central. (As host, Portage Northern was ineligible for sweepstakes trophies. But boy oh boy did they make their presence felt. )

To earn third place, City had four entries in the finals:

Sara Olia took 6th in Impromptu

Cooper Wilson and Corine Quinn, aka Wilson/Quinn, came in 4th in Duo, while picking up 4 1/100 of a possible 8. Way to go!

Michael Schafer placed 3rd in Extemp, with a strong performance including 3 1/100s, and 4 2/99s.

And the Multiple (Jekyll & Hyde) took 2nd overall, including taking a 1/100 in the final round.

And it wasn't just the final round...
Other students also enjoyed success. First time performer Jessica Miller (Poetry) made it to the semi-finals, as did Storyteller Julia Stuart, who also was in the semis at Christian last week.

Also in the semis were two Informative presentations: Riet Groenleer (Food Styling) and senior Colin Tokarek (Oil). Like Stuart, Riet had also made the semi's at Christian.

We also had two other first time performers: Emily Witte (Storytelling) and Katie Barber (Storytelling).