Casper not so friendly

Coming off of winter break, the six-member Saratoga Speech and Debate Team headed to Casper to compete in the Kelly Walsh Invite where just one of the team members broke into the semi-final round in both Poetry and Program Oral Interpretation (POI).

“Kelly Walsh was a bit of a punch in the gut for us,” said Head Coach Johnny Mercer, “but there were some valuable lessons learned. Coming off of a long break and getting back into the groove of Speech was a tough hill to climb this week.”

Kaylyn Hunter was the single member of the team to head into semi-finals in her respective events of Poetry and POI. According to Mercer, talk jocks Kailee Hytrek and Takoda Pederson had single digit scores after their first three rounds and, due to the number of participants, were unable to break into semi-finals.

“We also took Shelby Randall and Kelsey Hytrek,” Mercer said. “Shelby performed two pieces this time around and both girls are showing improvement. They’re the young faces of the squad, so we have high hopes for them.”

The next meet for the small speech team will be Jan. 18 and 19 at the Cheyenne Central Invite.