VALLEY CITY, N.D. (NewsDakota.com)- This past weekend the Valley City High School speech team “split” and traveled to two separate tournaments. Our younger students traveled to a smaller tournament in Litchville-Marion and our older students traveled to the Fargo South Bruins Speech Invitational.
There were 13 schools in attendance at the Litchville-Marion speech tournament, including last year’s state Class B team champions Enderlin-MV. Our younger speakers still held their own and managed to have a very successful day, placing second as a team with 128 points behind Enderlin-MV (1st-205 points) and ahead of North Sargent (3rd-33 points). The VCHS Speech Team had several first time finalists at the Litchville-Marion speech tournament and had 9 events qualify for state April 13th at Jamestown High School.
At the Fargo South Bruins Speech Invitational there were 11 teams in attendance and Valley City placed 1st (189 points) ahead of second place Fargo Shanley (89 points) and third place West Fargo Sheyenne (78 points). The VCHS Speech team advanced 31 entries to the final round of competition (the most of any school) and had 6 events qualify for the State Class A Speech Tournament April 13th at Jamestown High School.
Individual Results for Litchville-Marion: 
Speech to Persuade: Luke Plagens (6th), Aurora Ziniel (4th)
Impromptu Speaking: Aurora Ziniel (7th), Lillian Kiefert (4th), Luke Plagens (2nd/State Qualified on A/B split)
Radio Broadcasting: Kendra Green (8th), Theodore Hochhalter (6th)
Poetry: Lillian Kiefert (1st and State Qualified)
Humorous: Theodore Hochhalter (7th), Benjamin Kruta (2nd, State Qualified on A/B split)
Storytelling: Isaac Abrahamson (Top Novice), Stephanie Hoffarth (5th), Amelia Meester (2nd, State Qualified on A/B split)
Dramatic: Lillian Kiefert (1st and State Qualified)
Extemporaneous Speaking: Luke Plagens (4th), Lillian Kiefert (3rd), Abby Redfearn (2nd, State Qualified on A/B Split)
Speech to Inform: Aurora Ziniel (1st and State Qualified)
Serious Prose: Ayden Grace McPartland (6th), Stephanie Hoffarth (5th)
Speech to Entertain: Benjamin Kruta (8th), Katy Borg (5th), Amelia Meester (1st and State Qualified)
Humorous Duo: Benjamin Kruta/Isaac Abrahamson (Top Novice), Amelia Meester/Katy Borg (2nd, State Qualified on A/B split)
Individual Results for Fargo South Bruins Speech Invitational: 
Dramatic: Owen Plagens (5th), Maggie Oberlander (2nd), Gabriella Shipp (1st and State Qualified)
Extemporaneous Programmed Reading: Olivia Slyter (8th), Monisha Terry (3rd), Maggie Oberlander (2nd)
Humorous: Skye Auka (5th), Owen Plagens (2nd-Tie), Monisha Terry (2nd-Tie)
Humorous Duo: Brooke Ask/Cassie Mundal (3rd), Sophie Boe/Dylan Quick (1st and State Qualified)
Speech to Inform: Dylan Quick (8th)
Speech to Persuade: Elizabeth Gazeley (4th), Maggie Oberlander (1st and State Qualified)
Poetry: Cassie Mundal (8th) Skye Auka (6th), Brooke Ask (5th), Olivia Slyter (3rd), Gabriella Shipp (2nd), Monisha Terry (1st and State Qualified)
Serious Prose: Skye Auka (6th), Olivia Slyter (5th), Gabriella Shipp (2nd)
Serious Duo: Elizabeth Gazeley/Julianne McPartland (5th), Brooke Ask/Rylee Cihak (4th)  Monisha Terry/Gabriella Shipp (3rd), Maggie Oberlander/Eliza Johnson (1st and State Qualified)
Speech to Entertain: Dylan Quick (6th), Elizabeth Gazeley (1st and State Qualified)
Storytelling: Elizabeth Gazeley (3rd), Sophie Boe (2nd)
Next up for the Valley City High School Speech team is the West Fargo Sheyenne Mustang Mane Speech Invitational February 23rd. This tournament will feature a mix of Class A and Class B Teams and should be a good quality competitive tournament.