The different district speech tournaments took place March 8 from 3-9 pm at Sam Barlow High School and on March 10 from 7 am-4 pm. The competition that occurred on March 8 included the debate portion, and the competition that took place on March 10 was a non-debate, improv-based tournament, said speech advisor Jen Loeung.

“They helped each other a lot, and (many) had the desire to compete,” stated Loeung.

Here are the results of both competitions:

Thursday, March 8:

Senior Ciara Polito placed 1st for Lincoln-Douglas Debate

Freshmen Sam Schuhl and Shelby Colt placed 3rd for Parliamentary Debate and Junior Jacob Schuhl and Senior Safaa Adaam are the alternates to state in this debate.

Sean Cochren + Jessica Cornea are alternates to state for Public Forum Debate

Senior Alex Saechao and Freshman Henry Dobesh are alternates to state for Cross Examination debate.

Since Barlow has consistently been the state leader in speech and debate for the past 40 years, this achievement is extremely significant to the CHS speech and debate team.

Saturday, March 10:

Senior Alex Saechao won 1st prize for Poetry, and senior Ciara Polito won 2nd prize for Poetry

Junior Rodrigo Vidal-Ornelas took 2nd place for Prose

Freshman Shelby Colt is the alternate to state in Prose

Junior’s

Kangla Moua and Miranda Denman placed 1st in Dual Interp

Senior Alex Vega and Sophomore Matthew Maillet placed 2nd in Dual Interp

Freshman Shelby Colt is the state alternative for an Expository Speech

Sophomore Tabarek Alsaood took 2nd place in LIBEL (Literary Interpretation of a book for English Language learners) and Hao Li is the alternate to state for LIBEL.

The following students placed in the semi-final rounds and finished as a top 3/4 finalist:

Junior Haoyuan Xiao – LIBEL

Senior Emma Dobesh – Oratory

Senior Claire Dobesh – Expository

Junior Kangla (MIKI) Moua – Expository

Senior Alex Saechao – After Dinner Speaking

Sophomore Matthew Millet – Impromptu

Sophomore James Le – Impromptu

“I was so proud of them,” remarked Loeung.