The state speech and debate tournament was held at Bangor High School, on Jan. 21. Seventeen Maine schools were in attendance, with 120 competitors.
Cape's Speech Team won the Speech Sweepstakes, led by first place performances by Sonia Wold, Dramatic Interpretation; Trevor Oakley, Informative Speech and Storytelling events; Grant Lapierre, Extemporaneous, Laura Giacobazzi, Oral Interpretation of Literature; Hayden Marquardt-Grainer, Original Works; Matilda Gustafson, Poetry Reading; Second-place finishes by Zosia Kala, Poetry Reading and Original Works; Maddie Turgelsky, Oratorical Declamation and third place, Original Works; and third place finishes by Saga Hart, Dramatic Interpretation and Prose Reading; and Ollie Hardin, Prose Reading.
Cape's Debate team earned the State Runner-up trophy, led by Jack Quinn and Laurent DeVries, Varsity Public Forum champions; Celeste Tourangeau, Novice Lincoln-Douglas champion; Dash Young, Novice Lincoln-Douglas runner-up; Jane Curtis, fourth place in Novice Lincoln-Douglas, and Nora Lane, fifth place in Varsity Lincoln-Douglas.
Cape's Congress team, with only four members competing, claimed the Runner up trophy, led by Tess Straw, first place in House Chamber 2; Jack McCormick, third in Senate, and Zoe Burgard, fifth in Senate. Tess and Jack also qualified for the National Catholic Forensic League Grand National Tournament, to be held this year in Louisville, KY. Additional Students will have a chance to qualify at the Speech & Debate NCFL qualifier on Feb. 4 at Poland Regional High School.
A special thanks goes to volunteer speech coach, Greg Baker, in center foreground of photo, for his work at weekly Tuesday night practices and his regular appearances as a judge at statewide tournaments. Greg brought to the team his experience as a high school speech competitor in Virginia and his ongoing work as a comedy writer and performer in Los Angeles and now in Portland.