By Kenna McMurray

Moapa Valley Progress

MVHS Speaker, John Rockenbach accepts his second place trophy for Varsity Domestic Extemporaneous at the first forensics meet of the season last weekend. Photo by Kenna McMurray.

Moapa Valley Forensics returned to competition this weekend for the first tournament of the season held at Foothill High School on October 1.

The team welcomes a lot of new members this year. Uncertain, and a little overwhelmed, these young debaters just being introduced to debate, still competed at a very high level.

“There were a lot of people, and it was a lot longer than I expected,” said first year debater, Bella Wahl. “But it was fun and I can’t wait until next time.”

After four long, grueling rounds, finals were held. Several Moapa Valley team members made it into finals which added points to the team score.

When tournament results were announced, Moapa Valley had done well on both varsity and novice levels.

In the varsity competion, senior John Rockenbach took second in Varsity Expository with a speech on atomic testing. He narrowly beat junior Kenna McMurray, who took third in the same event with a speech on farm machinery. Rockenbach also took second in Domestic Extemporaneous Speaking.

In the Novice division, freshman Garrett O’Toole placed fifth in Novice Foreign Extemporaneous. Freshman Jessica Abbott placed sixth in Novice Expository speaking.

After all the points were added up, Moapa Valley placed first in the team Sweepstakes competition and the team took its first win of the season.

“Foothill was a great tournament that helped train our novices,” said team officer Alysa Ramos. “Now that they know how it feels to win a trophy, I feel that they will be unstoppable. We are all so excited for this upcoming year.”

Although not everyone on the team won individual trophies, many team members competed well within their separate rounds. Many members ranked within the top three in every round, narrowly missing it into the final round.