Murray, NEB- On Feb, 19 the Conestoga Speech team attended the Conference Speech meet at Raymond Central High School. “Conference went well,” states speech coach Jessica Schlitemeier. The team ended up placing third in team sweeps.

Conestoga had many members place and do well in their events. John M secured first place in Extemporaneous speaking, second in Entertainment, and third in Informative. Freshman Layla F ended up with fifth place in Persuasive. Senior Dani A, finished third in Humorous Prose and fifth in Serious Prose. Another member who placed in Serious Prose was Ayden J who got third. Rhiannon J received third place in poetry at the conference meet. The final event that placed for Conestoga in conference speech was the Oral Interpretation of Drama (OID). In the Oral Interpretation of Drama event three to five members perform a script in which they are said to act without looking at each other. The OID ended up taking fifth place and the performers in the group were Rhiannon J, Ayden J, Alyssa B, and Hannah B.

Conestoga had a few non placing events. Alyssa B competed in Informative and Persuasive, Ayden J didn’t place in Extemporaneous, and Hannah B competed in poetry.

The Conference Speech meet is similar to any other meet the team attends throughout the season. It prepares students for the district meet, which is the state qualifying meet and is smaller than most of the meets. The team usually competes in tournaments with about 20 teams and hundreds of entries but the conference meet had eight teams and 78 entries. In a regular meet there are typically two or three preliminary rounds and then finals, but the conference only had one preliminary round with finals to follow. Two of the events in the conference were too small; they went straight to finals. “I think everyone had a great season. Good luck to all the state qualifiers!” Layla F exclaims.