FOUR-PEAT! Moorhead High speech team wins fourth consecutive state team championship
April 18, 2019
The Moorhead High speech team’s motto is “Champions by Choice.” For the fourth consecutive year, the Moorhead High speech team won the state speech team championship. Fourteen Spud speakers in 12 entries won medals, including two gold medals, during the MSHSL Class AA State Speech Tournament April 13 in Wayzata, Minn.
“The state championship win is a testament to the choices our kids make each and every day to conduct themselves with a winning attitude and championship work ethic,” said Rebecca Meyer-Larson, Moorhead High speech coach. “The Spuds speech team has dedicated their season to changing the world, one word at a time. Seeing such tangible rewards for their efforts is awesome, but the knowledge that we are nurturing future leaders who use their words for good is the highest reward.”
Seniors Anna Larson (Informative) and Neva Miller (Great Speeches) earned gold medals. It’s the second time in three years that Moorhead has had a state champion in Informative and Great Speeches.
Seniors Sophia Klindt (Duo) and Katherine Leiseth (Ex. Reading) became the ninth and tenth Spuds to earn three state medals; Klindt and her duo partner Greta Almlie took third place while Leiseth finished sixth.
Sophomore Stella Mehlhoff (Prose) and seniors Alyssa Haagenson (Storytelling) and Margaret Dickey (Oratory) all finished in second place for their second career state medal. Almlie took third in duo for her second straight state medal.
Other Spud medalists are Regan Hart (3rd, Creative), Molly Hauf (3rd, Great Speeches), Dylan Stage (4th, Drama), Thalia Christenson (6th, Poetry), and Cassidy Wendt and Jonah Hanson (8th, Duo).
Moorhead now has 25 state champions and 210 state medals in team history. Moorhead is third in the state for the top medal-winning Class AA schools.
The Moorhead Spuds captured the Section 8AA title for the 25th consecutive season and saw 23 speakers in 21 entries qualify to advance to the state tournament. This is also the third straight year Moorhead has advanced at least 20 speakers to state with at least one entry in each event. Head Coach Rebecca Meyer-Larson was named the 2019 Section 8AA Coach of the Year.
Additionally, 14 Moorhead High speakers have qualified for the National Speech and Debate Association’s national tournament in Dallas this June. National qualifiers are:
· Sophia Klindt - dramatic duo and humor,
· Anna Larson - auto-qualified as a 2018 national finalist in informative,
· Alyssa Haagenson - program oral interpretation,
· Jonah Hanson - dramatic duo,
· Cassidy Wendt - dramatic duo,
· Katherine Leiseth - dramatic duo,
· Jack Entzion - dramatic duo,
· Dylan Stage - dramatic interpretation,
· Greta Almlie - dramatic duo and dramatic interpretation,
· Margaret Dickey - dramatic interpretation and oratory,
· Stella Mehlhoff - dramatic interpretation,
· Maret Holm - humor,
· Emma Pranger - extemporaneous speaking, and
· Grace Halvorson - informative speaking.
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