Speech and debate fares well at home tourney

The Douglas High School Speech and Debate Team hosted 17 schools from all over Northern Nevada at the annual Jennifer Jo Smith Memorial Tournament Jan. 8 and 9.

DHS continued to win big in the top events of the tournament. Douglas not only won second place as a team in the tournament, but they had a competitor in every final round of senior debate.

One of the biggest events of the night had three out of the four senior Lincoln Douglas competitors making it to the semi-final round from Douglas High School.

Kevin Kendrick additionally won first in senior Lincoln Douglas debate leaving him with first place in all four league tournaments this school year.

The following students from Douglas High School received awards for the Jan. 9 debate events: Nicole Romaneschi and Roy Dornbrook won second place in senior policy debate, Romaneschi also won best speaker for senior policy debate; Kevin Kendrick took first place in senior Lincoln Douglas debate, as well as best speaker for senior Lincoln Douglas debate; Megan Frost and Victoria Lopez each earned third place making it to semi-finals in senior Lincoln Douglas debate; Noah O'Conner and Kaitlin Barger took first place in senior Public Forum debate; Sedona Schat and Abby Chittwood won third place in senior Public Forum debate; Daniel Armburst won first place in novice Lincoln Douglas debate.

Additionally, the following students from Douglas High School received awards for their speaking events on Jan. 8: Nicole Romaneschi won third place in senior expository speaking; Megan Frost placed fourth in senior expository; Amelia Ritger won second place in senior dramatic interpretation; Will Dornbrook received first place in senior domestic extemporaneous; Kevin Kendrick placed fourth in senior storytelling; Evan Kleiner placed fifth in senior domestic extemporaneous; and Roy Dornbrook placed fourth in novice domestic extemporaneous.

The freshman competitors from Carson Valley Middle School also did very well making it to final round in many speech events Jan. 8. Abigail Lewis placed fourth in novice expository speaking; Taylor Hubbard placed fifth in novice expository speaking; Bailey Gumm and Emily Hales placed fifth in novice duo interpretation; and Mac Cronin placed fifth in novice domestic extemporaneous.

Some of the top competitors of the team will be traveling to compete at the Golden Desert Invitational in Las Vegas later this month.