Speech and debate students know the pain of a 4:00 am bus loading, but they had a chance to skip that pain last weekend with a two-day meet that had them spending the night in Lindale. 

“Usually for a meet in Lindale we are on the road hours before daylight,” coach Melonie Menefee said. “But for a two-day meet when we were not going to be done competing until nearly 10:00 pm and had to be back by 7:00, it made a lot more sense to get hotel rooms.”

Students still had to be up before daylight after a late night of competition, but they knew from experience that they would be glad for the experience.

“Getting up early is a mess,” senior Zach White said. “But at the end of the day it usually is worth it.”

This Lindale meet was the largest meet the team has competed at in several years. For example, there were 56 CX teams competing. Evan Grisham and Tate Slaughter broke to finals, and Lilah Adams and Colby Menefee missed finals by one team.

“I was impressed with how well they held up in prelims with so many teams,” Menefee said. “It was excellent practice.”

 Three students came home with medals, with six missing making finals and thus medaling by just one spot.

“The meet was really fun,” Cleveland said. “I was scared at first, but I’m glad I went.”

The large number of competitors worried the small squad at first, but they jumped in and started competing.

“It was a lot of fun,” junior Lilah Adams said. “I was terrified at first, but I did better than I thought I was going to in CX.