Milbank Debate and IE Captured Second Place in Yankton

Milbank forensic students captured second place in Class A sweepstakes at the Lewis and Clark Debate and Individiual Events speech contest held in Yankton this past weekend. "It was a good tournament for the students. We missed competition in Fargo the first weekend of January because of weather and the Speech Fiesta in Watertown last weekend was canceled so getting into the swing of things was important. I am proud of the effort the speakers put forth" commentd Douglas Tschetter, head coach of the squad. Ron Frauenshuh is the assistant coach of the team.

In individual events, three MHS students advanced to the final rounds. In Novice Original Oratory Rachel Johannsen finished in third place while Tim Whelan captured fourth. Natasha Hartman made the final round of Dramatic Interp where she finished in fifth place. Other Milbank entries who scored points for the team included: Josh Grabow in Varsity Foreign Extemp; Mitch Wagner in Varsity Domestic Extemp; Natasha Hartman, Brenna Rasuch, and Amanda Lambrechts in Varsity Original Oratory; Brenna Rausch and Brent Seehafer in Duet Interp; Katie Loutsch and Brent Seehafer in Dramatic Interp; Bailey Neidert in Novice Original Oratory; and Sam Grorud, Katie Loutsch, Camilla Oedling, Tim Whelan, and Brock Rudebusch in Novice Extemp.

Milbank speakers performed well in the debate events as well. Katie Loutsch and Sam Grorud finished with a 4-1 record in novice public forum and captured fourth place. Tim Whelan and Brock Rudebusch also competed in this division and finished 2-3. In Varsity Public Forum the teams of Mitch Wagner and Camilla Oedling and Brent Seehafer and Brenna Rausch each finished with 3-2 records. Amanda Lambrechts and Natasha Hartman were 2-3 in Varsity Policy while Bailey Neidert and Rachel Johannsen were 1-4 in novice policy. Josh Grabow was 3-2 in Varsity LD.

There are no tournaments in SD this weekend but the squads will gear up for the final invitational contest of the year which will be hosted by Harrisburg High School on February 12th.