Waking up at 5:00 am to head up to the school and drive for two hours to spend the entire day competing at a speech meet is something that the students on the speech team are accustomed to.Just last week, the speech team left to compete at China Spring. They brought three competitors: senior Kaiden Loep, sophomore Colby Menefee and senior Lilah Adams.

“Waking up so early can often be hard, but we are used to it,” Adams said. “I think the early mornings prepare us and make us more awake when we are competing.”

Adams competed in Poetry Interpretation and placed third. In Poetry, competitors are given seven minutes to read a woven program, there are two categories; cat A and cat B.

“It was my first meet to read my piece to someone other than my coach,” Adams said. “I was really anxious but I’m glad I got someone else’s opinion on it.”

Menefee competed in Congress and placed first, as well as Extemporaneous Speaking and placed third. In Extemp, competitors are given  a persuasive or informative topic; they then have 30 minutes to prepare a speech.

“I was really excited and relieved when they called my name for first place,” Menefee said. “It was a really hard day and that made me anxious.”

Loep competed in Lincoln Douglas debate. LD debate strictly based on morals, it consists of two debaters in a 45 minute time zone. China Spring was the first ever meet that Loep had competed in LD, she placed first and won a gold medal.

“I was really anxious when I went into my first round,” Loep said. “After I got done, I realized that I had it in the bag.”