Page/Woolfolk place first

The Carbon County School District No. 2 Speech Team traveled to Cheyenne Jan. 18 and 19 for a speech competition hosted by Laramie County Community College and Cheyenne Central High School.

Geoff Page and Colton Woolfolk earned a first place title with their humorous duet “Dueling Phobias”.

Woolfolk also competed in the Improv category. A topic is drawn and the student has two minutes to prepare a speech. Colton drew one topic asking him to convince the principal birthdays are worthy of a day off from school.

Speech coach Brenda Ostendorf said Woolfolk entertainingly charmed the audience and had many people laughing. Woolfolk earned third place overall.

Two other speech team members, Katlynne Hytrek and Jacob Dickinson, joined the Improv category for the first time this past weekend.

Hytrek’s topic had her explaining which animal she would be and why. She earned a ranking of three in the round. Dickinson’s topic was similar to Woolfolk’s, Ostendorf said.

“There is a team member who is seeking a partner for competitive debate,” Ostendorf said. Any high school student in CCSD#2 who is interested and is able to travel to meets over the weekend can attend the practices at Saratoga, Hanna or Encampment each school day in the respective libraries.

Ostendorf said the CCSD#2 speech team can be compared to the biblical character David, who took a sling shot and toppled the giant named Goliath. “The speech team walks into a competition typically filled with over 100 students,” Ostendorf said. “The commitment to the success of the speech team is strong and the community can be proud of such an industrious speech team.”

The team is coached by Ostendorf in Hanna, with assistant coaches Greg Bush in Saratoga and Gayle Wessel in Encampment.

The speech team travels to Evanston Jan. 25 and 26.