VALLEY CITY, N.D. (special to NewsDakota.com) -This past Saturday the Valley City High School Hi-Liner Speech Team traveled to the SMCHS Capital City Lions Tournament held at St. Mary’s High School in Bismark. This is an extremely large and competitive tournament featuring over 500 individual entries and 25 schools in attendance.

The Hi-Liner Speech team had a very successful showing wracking up five individual event champions and runner-ups in four events. There are no sweepstakes awards given out at this tournament. Valley City managed to get three new state qualifiers for the NDHSAA State Class A Tournament in April.

Total the Hi-Liners have 14 entries qualified for the state tournament with 7 regular season tournaments left in the season and regionals. It is shaping up to be a great season.   Individual results for VCHS are as follows:

Humorous: Ben Kruta (Superior Speaker), Skye Auka (9th), Maisie Leick (7th), Owen Plagens (5th), Morgan Jenner (2nd)

Poetry: Cassie Mundal (Superior Speaker), Skye Auka (6th)

Speech to Persuade: Abby Redfearn (Top Novice), Brinklyn Johnson (6th), Luke Plagens (3rd), Elizabeth Gazeley (1st and State Qualified)

Serious Duo: Leah Hochhalter/Abby Shanenko (8th), Brynn Hagen/Stephanie Hoffarth (6th), Owen Plagens/Brinklyn Johnson (1st and State Qualified)

Impromptu Speaking: Masie Leick (8th), Madi Klabo (6th)

Storytelling: Cassie Mundal (Superior Speaker), Sophie Boe (8th), Morgan Jenner (5th), Tucker Johnson (1st and State Qualified)

Speech to Inform: Katy Meester (1st and State Qualified)

Serious Prose: Olivia Slyter (Superior Speaker), Tucker Schonert (9th), Skye Auka (2nd)

Extemporaneous Speaking: Abby Redfearn (Superior Speaker), Madi Klabo (6th), Luke Plagens (2nd)

Dramatic Interpretation: Madi Klabo (4th)

Speech to Entertain: Stephanie Hoffarth (7th), Aurora Ziniel (3rd), Katy Borg (2nd), Elizabeth Gazeley (1st and State Qualified)

Humorous Duo: Teddy Hochhalter/Kendra Green (7th), Amelia Meester/Katy Borg (5th), Sophie Boe/Dylan Quick (3rd )

Next up for the VCHS Hi-Liner Speech Team is a pair of tournaments this next weekend. On Saturday, February 15th the Hi-Liners will travel to the Mandan Brave Speech Invitational. On Monday, February 17th, VCHS will host the ND Lions tournament. Mandan will be another large tournament and the Lions Tournament will be a smaller tournament, but still competitive. Full Results on both tournaments will come out early next week.