River Valley Speech Team is Subsection Champion


The River Valley Speech Team claimed the Subsection Championship at the Subsection speech tournament on Friday, March 31, at Montevideo High School.  River Valley Speech Team earned 79 points to take the top spot. Second place was awarded to TMB (Tracy-Milroy-Balaton), and third place to Montevideo High School who received 70 and 35 team points, respectively.  Twenty-two River Valley students were awarded medals for placing in the top six in their categories.  The top four finalists in each category will advance to the Section 3A speech tournament which will be held at SMSU in Marshall on Saturday, April 8.  Six students were first-place champions in their categories.  Those students are: Isaac Nelson in Creative Expression, Colton Jensen and Jessica Moe in Duo, Kaitlyn Vogel in Informative Speaking, Elijah Kirschstein in Original Oratory, and Grace Pingeon in Storytelling.  Receiving second-place runner-up medals were Ross VanDerWal in Creative Expression, Sarah Dunn in Humorous, and Anna Plotz in Informative Speaking.  Informative speaker, Ella Bartz, came in third place, along with the Duo team of Kendra Parks and Skyler Kottke and Original Orator, Katelyn Hauth.  Fourth-place medals were awarded to Isaac Rasset in Original Oratory, Joe Pieschel in Humorous, Emily Scheitel in Extemporaneous Speaking, Jocelyn Hayden in Poetry, and Hannah Schroepfer in Prose.  First alternates to Sections and receiving fifth-place medals were Laura Sternberg in Poetry, Briana Schmidt in Original Oratory, and Anna Reiner in Humorous.  Second alternate to Sections and receiving a sixth-place medal was Jackie Reindl in Drama.  This year’s coaching staff has included head coach Brianna Jensen who has been assisted by Springfield’s Darcy Hoyt, Addie Sadler, and Gabby Cohrs.