FORT LAUDERDALE, FL (NewsDakota.com)- Valley City sent several competitors to the National Speech Competition in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
Three Hi-Liners were able to advance to the top 60 with Maggie Oberlander, Rose Marcellus and David Opdahl.
Oberlander made it past the top 60 and into semifinals finishing as a top 14 finisher in the nation and earning an automatic bid for the national tournament in Dallas next summer.
The Hi-Liners, who also had Abby Slyter and Libby Borg qualify for nationals, are still competing in in supplemental and consolation events at nationals.
Speech Update from Florida:
Abby Slyter has made the semi finals in poetry! She is now in the top 14 hoping to make the cut to 6.
Maggie Oberlander will receive her award this afternoon at approximately 2:30 CST it is live streamed from the National Speech and Debate Tournament at the link below.
Maggie advanced farthest of any VCHS student in the national tournament in the history of VCHS speech. To make the top 14 is simply amazing. She began in an event that probably had somewhere between 200 and 300 competitors. (At least that’s typically the size of an event at nationals) the students would speak 6 rounds against 6 or 7 other students each round. To advance to the top 60 you must have ranks of probably 1 or 2 coming out of those first six rounds. After the break to 60, the students spoke two more rounds once again against competitors that they probably had not competed against.
After those 2 rounds only half- or the top 30 -advance. They then speak two more rounds and only 14 advance to the semi-finals. They then speak two more times and the top 6 advance to the big stage to speak in front of probably 8 to 10 thousand people. The 8 of the top 14 that didn’t advance will receive their trophies on the big stage later today when those top 6 perform. Maggie will get her trophy there and will automatically advance to the national tournament next year as she qualified for that by being in the top 14.
Since Maggie was competing into the semi-finals she wouldn’t have been done early enough to compete in the supplemental events, and has to report to the convention center for the awards practice. She is no longer competing in supplemental and consolation events due to her advancement.
The five students from Valley City are: David Opdahl and Rose Marcellus who broke to the top 60 in Dramatic Interpretation, and Rose was tied for the break to 30 in 31st place. Also Abby Slyter was competing in original oratory and she was tied in 61st place to break to the top 60. Libby Borg is competing with 4 other students from around the state in an event called World Schools Debate.
Speech Update from Florida:
Abby Slyter has made the semi finals in poetry! She is now in the top 14 hoping to make the cut to 6.
Maggie Oberlander will receive her award this afternoon at approximately 2:30 CST it is live streamed from the National Speech and Debate Tournament at the link below.
Libby Borg is still competing in impromptu.
Eydie Wagar said it was an amazing job by Coach Nick Lee and the VCHS students. He has had back to back ND State Championship Speech Teams and has five students at the national tournament.
Wagar said speech is sort of one of those activities that doesn’t have a large following but gives students amazing life skills.