Brenna, Baylee, Chloe, Kayton & Callie
A short-handed speech team brought home medals from the Eagle Classic at Lutheran High Northeast on Friday, February 23. Due to the District basketball game, the OID was unable to compete.
Top honors on the day went to the Duet of Baylee Busteed and Chloe Henn. They earned the silver runners-up medals.
Kyndal Busteed won the fifth place medal in Persuasive Speaking.
Henn brought home the sixth place medal in Entertainment Speaking.
Superior Ratings were earned by the following speakers: Samantha Durre-Serious, Kyla Donaldson-Humorous, Busteed-Informative, Ruby Durre-Poetry and Zoey Buechter-Poetry. Earning Excellent Ratings were Donaldson-Extemp and Gemma Miller-Extemp and Persuasive.
Coaches Jessie Reestman and Stacy Shumake-Henn were pleased with the results.
“It was nice to get another competition in before districts, which is approaching quickly. The more ballots and delivery opportunities the kids get, the more chances they have to improve.”
This week the team will compete at the Riverside Speech Meet on Wednesday.
The District contest hosted by Stuart will be on March 12.
The team will hold their public performance on Monday, March 11 at 6:30 in the EPS lunch room.
NVC Meet
Five members of the Elgin Speech Team brought home a combined nine medals from the NVC meet on Wednesday, Feb. 21.
Stuart played host to the competitive meet.
Earning silver medals were members of the NVC Runners-up OID: Baylee Busteed, Brenna Martinsen, Chloe Henn, Callie Heithoff and Kayton Zwingman.
Henn also brought home another silver medal as the runner-up in Entertainment Speaking.
In addition, Baylee Busteed and Henn were the third place medalists in Duet Acting.
Baylee Busteed earned an additional medal placing 6th in Informative Speaking.
Superior Ratings were earned by the following speakers: Kyndal Busteed-Persuasive, Samantha Durre-Serious, Gemma Miller-Persuasive, Kyla Donaldson-Humorous and Callie Heithoff-Entertainment.
Earning Excellent Ratings were Ruby Durre-Poetry, Donaldson-Extemp and Miller-Extemp.
The team placed fifth out of 13 teams.
“We saw so many good things from our kids today. The NVC is tough, so anytime someone can break finals, it’s pretty impressive.
“Our kids are all improving with each meet, and a few are really getting close to medaling. They’re just so much fun to work with,” the coaches said.
With just eleven members on their team, most of the EPS speechsters have busy days.
“We have kids who are both triple and double entered at each meet, which keeps them really busy. They move from event to event and have very little downtime. Some of them are performing two to three different pieces up to six to nine times a meet. Keeping up with that kind of schedule and then making finals in all three events is pretty impressive.”
Howells-Dodge
Competition continues to be tough for the EPS Speech Team, but they are stepping up to the plate. They recently attended a competitive Jaguar Jabber Speech Meet in Howells.
Earning Runners-up medals was OID of Baylee Busteed, Brenna Martinsen, Chloe Henn, Callie Heithoff and Kayton Zwingman.
Baylee Busteed and Henn also brought home the fourth place medals in Duet Acting.
Kyndal Busteed earned the fourth place medal in the Persuasive Honors Division, a second round of finals allowing participants another delivery opportunity.
In their Entertainment Speaking debut, Henn and Heithoff earned Superior Ratings. Baylee Busteed also earned a Superior in Informative Speaking.
Since it was such a large meet, the host school also featured a JV division. Capturing sixth place medals were Gemma Miller in Persuasive, Kyla Donaldson in Humorous and Zoey Buechter in Poetry.
Earning Excellent Ratings were Ruby Durre in Poetry and Donaldson in Extemp.
According to coaches Jessie Reestman and Stacy Shumake-Henn, the day provided some solid opponents.
“We haven’t been able to attend the Howells-Dodge Meet in years, but it is always some great competition. We are up against some sizeable powerhouses like Battle Creek, Twin River, Columbus Lakeview, Oakland-Craig, etc.
“Anytime we can come away with some medals, that speaks volumes for our kids,” the coaches said.
They were also excited about the JV division. “Typically we attend smaller meets that only cater to varsity competition. As a result, our new kids are forced to jump right in with seasoned veterans.
“This meet provided some of our younger kids the opportunity to compete against those at a similar skill level, and they did great.”
