(Picture: From left to right- Marlee Baldridge, Kady Spry,Victoria Clark, (front, Paul Dieckmann) Derek Howard, Mikeala Lewis, (front, Alison Harrison) Trent Rose, and Elena Flurry)
It was an exciting morning as the five speech kids chosen to showcase their talents in Districts loaded up the bus, with other supporters and their coach, Paul Dieckmann. Senior Marlee Baldridge would be competing in the events of Poetry, Dramatic Interpretation, and Oratory. Junior Mikeala Lewis would be participating in Prose and Duet along with her partner, Sophomore Trent Rose. Sophomore Kady Spry would compete in Humorous Interpretation and Storytelling, while Allison Harrison, also a Sophomore this year at Harrisburg, would participate for her very first time in Radio Speaking.
There were plenty of nerves to go around in Mexico. Because of poor results in the past, tournaments in Mexico always held a certain place of disdain in the hearts of veteran speech kids like Baldridge, who was more concerned about unqualified or misinformed judges than her pieces. As it happened, the kids had very little to worry about. This year’s tournament was packed with volunteer judges who they themselves were former speech kids in high school, including Shana Rhodes, a ’12 Senior who’s legacy is going to state in a record three different events.
The tournament was organized in Go-Hard-or-Go-Home manner, hosting ALL events within the first hour and a half of the morning for the first round. Before first round results were even posted, the second round began, and again with the furious pace set by the first. The students were at lunch when they found out their scores, and by time they scrambled back from Subway to the Mexico high school, finals were being posted for the final six or seven competitors within each event. Every Harrisburg competitor had finaled, in all of their events, save Baldridge’s Dramatic.
Finals were quick and painless, and results were found quickly. The students moved into the auditorium to hear the standings, and who would go to state. Kady Spry would be going to state in Storytelling, as well as Mikeala Lewis in Prose, but it was Baldridge’s results that would put the icing on the cake. Second, and state-qualifying, in Oratory, but also winning District Champion of Poetry.
Three Harrisburg Speech kids will be going to state this year, with only one veteran, out of a seven-man speech team.
Bulldawg Pride 