Four Luverne speech team members earned all-conference honors March 17 at the Big South Conference meet in Marshall.
Seniors Luke Thorson and Chance Tunnissen took the conference championships in humorous interpretation and extemporaneous speaking respectively.
Joining Thorson and Tunnissen in the all-conference designation were senior Burke Johnson in discussion and junior Parker Carbonneau in extemperaneous speaking. Both speakers placed second in their respective categories.
The four were among the 16 Cardinals who competed in the preliminary rounds. Nine speakers advanced to the final rounds:
•Freshman Brianna Kinsinger, fourth in creative expression.
•Senior Mia Wenzel, fifth in serious poetry.
•Sophomore Alex Perkins, seventh in serious poetry.
•Eighth-grader Zander Carbonneau, fourth in extemporaneous speaking.
•Senior Rylee Anderson, sixth in great speeches.
The team placed second in the small school division out of nine competing schools. The competition had 140 student participants.
R-T-R tournament
The Cardinal speech team traveled to the Russell-Tyler-Ruthton High School in Tyler Saturday for the school’s inaugural varsity meet in R-T-R’s new school.
Almost 200 students competed in the three rounds that culminated in a final round for each of the 13 categories.
Luverne brought home the second-place team trophy.
Individual varsity results included:
•Creative expression: Brianna Kinsinger, third.
•Extemporaneous speaking: Chance Tunnissen, first; Parker Carbonneau, second; Zander Carbonneau, third.
•Great speeches: Rylee Anderson, third; Nora Louwagie, fifth.
•Humorous interpretation: Luke Thorson, first.
•Poetry: Mia Wenzel, second.
In the junior varsity competition at the R-T-R tournament, eighth-graders Makayla Oechsle and Maddy Schepel placed fourth and fifth respectively in discussion, and eighth-grader Lizzy Mulder placed first in informative speaking.
Montevideo invitational
Luverne finished the regular speech season Saturday in Montevideo.
Nine Cardinals received medals or ribbons at the meeting including:
•Creative expression, Brianna Kinsinger, fourth.
•Extemporaneous speaking, Chance Tunnissen, first.
•Great speeches, Rylee Anderson, fourth.
•Humorous: Luke Thorson, first.
•Informative speaking: Jessika Tunnissen, third; Lizzy Mulder, fifth; Xavier McKenzie, blue ribbon.
•Original oratory, Roselynn Hartshorn, third.
•Poetry, Mia Wenzel, second.
Subsection competition is Tuesday (after press deadline) in Adrian followed by the Section 3A championships on April 9 in Marshall. The state speech tournament is April 22-23 in Apple Valley.
Luverne is the defending subsection and Section 3A champions. A record six students from Luverne competed virtually in last year’s state tournament.