Speech nears end

By Brenda Erdahl

Sports Editor

The Maple Lake High School speech team is nearing the end of its season, and it’s been a good one.

Here are some of the highlights:

After a second-place finish at Norwood Young America on Feb. 17, the Irish hosted its largest home in-person meet on Saturday, Feb. 24. Nearly 325 students and 23 schools filled Maple Lake High School and a portion of Maple Lake Elementary.

Melrose won the large school division; Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted took first in the medium school division; and Royalton won the small school division.

“It was great to see the turnout, although it was a little overwhelming for our wi-fi” Head Coach Eric Meyer said. “This year we had more community involvement, with Spooky Brew donating beverages for our coaches and judges. That was very much appreciated by our many out-of-town guests.”

Placing for Maple Lake at the home meet were: Makkal Tessman, 4th, Great Speeches; Mia Hackbarth, 5th, Discussion; Erika Hannon, 7th, Drama; Tristin Stoeber, 7th, Discussion; and Nick Lind, 8th, Discussion.

On March 9, the Irish speech team finished first in the small school division at Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted and on March 18 they finished second at the Central Minnesota Conference meet with some top individual finishes including Mia Hackbarth who went home the conference champion in the discussion category.

Others who placed at the CMC meet were: Makkal Tessman, 2nd, Great Speeches; Erika Hannon, 2nd, drama; Isaiah Larson, 2nd, Creative Expression; Keeley Dircks, 3rd, informative speaking; Tristan Stoeber, 3rd, discussion; Carter Ertel and Olivia Mueller, 4th, duos; Elijah Dorse, 4th, original oratory; Logan Nelson, 4th, humorous interpretation; Nathan Halloran, 5th, discussion; Isabelle Greenen, 5th place, Great Speeches; Blake Stoeber, 5th place, Extemporaneous reading; Ethan Pavlenko, 5th place, extemporaneous reading; and Nick Lind, 6th place, discussion.

On Thursday, April 4, the Irish speech team travels to Annandale for the subsection tournament.

The section meet will be held on Saturday, April 13 in Melrose.