CCS wraps up speech regular season with third place finish at Maxwell

The Chase County speech team was challenged by a different format at Saturday’s Maxwell Invite.
While the majority of meets have two preliminary rounds and a round of finals, Maxwell had three rounds with no finals to determine the top finishers.
The different format led to several ties throughout the results, including the OID team of George Colton, Andrew Wiest, Kevin Dannatt and Zach Herbert, which tied for first.
CCS Speech Coach Alex Schilke explained the way scores are typically determined. Steps include lowest cumulative speaker rank, highest cumulative speaker points and, if there are ties in cumulative scores that bring finals to more than six, head-to-head competition. The last determining factor according to the NSAA speech manual is reciprocals.
“So because we did not go to a final (at Maxwell), that led to so many ties. There weren’t tie breaks or a final round to determine placing. Instead, it was determined from three preliminary rounds,” Schilke said.
CCS placed third as a team at Maxwell. Twenty-four teams competed.
Schilke said CCS has been fortunate to be in the top 15 at most of its meets, including the larger Ogallala and North Platte Blue & Gold meets, which each hosted well over 20 teams.
With the number of speakers CCS has, Schilke said its an awesome achievement.
“We have a speaker in all but one event (POI), but we do not have more than one group/speaker in Duet, OID, Serious, and Extemp. Without a ‘full team,’ we go into meets with a slight disadvantage because of numbers, but our results show the exceptional talent of our team,” Schilke continued.
Beside the OID team, Wiest placed first in serious at Maxwell.
Jasmine Johnson was second in entertainment and Colton placed fourth.
Herbert also added a second place finish in informative.
Wiest picked up his third medal on the day with a sixth place finish in humorous.
“Our speakers have received great feedback throughout the season, and we are at a point where we are just honing in on polishing as close to perfection as we can get before districts,” Schilke said.
The goal between now and districts is to practice/perform as much as possible to get programs there, she added.
“Thankfully, our amazingly supportive staff allows our speakers to present to classes when time allows. This greatly helps our team find comfort in performing in front of anyone,” Schilke said.
The public is invited to attend performances Tuesday evening in the CCS auditorium at 6 p.m.
Chase County will be at Wallace March 15 for one of two district competitions. CCS will be part of the C1-6 district that also includes Bridgeport, Gordon-Rushville, Hershey, Kearney Catholic, Mitchell, Ord and Valentine.
Also there for the Class D2-5 district will be Arnold, Arthur County, Creek Valley, Hyannis, McPherson County, Mullen, Sandhills, Thedford and Wallace.
Schilke said she’s been a part of teams that used to go to North Platte for districts, where they hosted “super districts.” Four classes would compete at the same site on those days.
“Wallace always hosts a well ran meet during the regular season (weather unfortunately did not allow them to host this year), and they ran a districts last season, so I have complete confidence it will be a great day.,” she added.