Another Saturday speech meet gave more of the competitive speech students a chance to hone their skills in front of other judges and against new competitors before district competition in the spring. For CX debate, especially, a January district contest date means that time is growing short before the “real” thing.

Kendall Morales and Taylor Lack teamed up for CX Debate. Kendall competed last year and had already competed at invitationals this year, but for Lack, it was a whole new experience.

“This was my first meet, and going in I was excited and nervous all at once,“ freshman Taylor Lack said. “After my first speech, I was a little more calm and understood more of what was going on.“

Along with the debate team, two poetry readers, Erykah Anderson and Lilah Molina, and one  pros reader, Kendall Lee, competed. It was the first time for the three of them to compete in interpretation this year; while Molina has competed already in debate, this was her first time in poetry. Both poetry readers placed overall against all the other schools there. Anderson placed sixth and Molina placed third.

“I am glad that I went. I learned a lot,” senior Erykah Anderson said. “Like Taylor, this was my first meet this year, and I was so nervous.”

Since speech coaches Jill Henson and Melonie Menefee both had previous events on the date of the meet, Spanish teacher and speech mom Georgeanna Adams-Molina took the students to the meet and helped out by judging. It was her first meet, as well.

“Going to the speech meet was so much fun,” Adams-Molina said. “When I got there, I couldn’t believe how much stuff was going on. Being there was like being at the Olympics, but for your brain.”