CCS speech competes at Sutherland

The Chase County Schools (CCS) speech team competed at Sutherland on Saturday.
Coach Alex Schilke had 11 students compete.
Junior Tegan Towns placed fifth in poetry.
“(Towns) continues to be a great role model for my younger speakers,” Schilke said. “She works hard on her program, but she also makes it a point to encourage all the beginning speech students.”
Schilke had a number of first-time speakers at the Sutherland meet including Colin O’Neil in persuasive, Krista Meeske in poetry, Annika McDaniels in entertainment, Yalexa Sanez in informative and Jerzee Milner and Kaylie Lotspeich in duet.
“All of the first-time speakers received valuable feedback and experience,” Schilke said.
“Jerzee and Kaylie were one point away from making it to duet finals. I was extremely proud of all these first-time presenters,” she said.
The Sutherland meet was the first meet of the year for senior Mackenzie Soltis, competing in informative.
Soltis has competed in the past, “and I’m pleased to have her back,” Schilke said.
Also competing were Josh Starnes and Grisleydi Ortega in poetry.
Schilke was especially proud of Starnes.
“He strives every day to make his program stronger, and he provides help to the other students,” she said.
“He received a first-place ranking in his first-round of prelims but unfortunately did not make it to finals. With his work ethic, I hope to see him in a final round very soon,” she said.
Next on the schedule for CCS is the Ogallala Speech Invitational on Feb. 22.