By BRYNNE MCMURRAY
Moapa Valley Progress
It was an exciting weekend for the Moapa Valley High School Speech and Debate team as they hosted their second annual home tournament. Throughout the school year the team has been to several tournaments but this was the first home tournament that the team has coordinated this year.
“Setting up the tournament was very stressful,” said MVHS Debate Captain Jennifer Ramirez. “Especially with the upcoming exams. But with the help of the whole team, the community volunteer judges, and especially our coach, we were able to pull it off.”
The tournament began Friday evening and continued all day Saturday. The first half of the tournament held the individual speech events. Moapa has been especially focusing on these events this year and Friday night that work paid off, The team was able to advance eleven people to the finals, where they all placed.
In Humorous Interpretation, Abigail Wallace took fourth, Nephi Boren placed fifth, and Lilly Briceno placed sixth. Nephi Boren then placed first and Brynne McMurray placed fourth in Expository. Two teams, Stetson Rowley and Katie Hendrix, as well as Lilly and Sandra Briceno, placed first and sixth respectively in the Duo event. In Domestic Extemporaneous Speaking, Mack Nelson placed second, Garrett O’Toole took fourth, and Landon Roberts placed sixth. Moapa also placed three competitors in Foreign Extemporaneous Speaking with Jennifer Ramirez in second, Marissa Perez in fourth, and Maria Gomez in sixth.
“This was a great opportunity to compete against some Utah schools that we usually don’t get to go against,” said Debate Coach Randy Brinker. “We had several contestants go to finals, some for the first time this year. We rocked it!”
On Saturday was the debate half of the tournament. There were many types of debate offered at the tournament.
In Congress, Moapa placed three people. Benjamin Leavitt placed first in House with Maria Gomez in third. Timothy Twelker placed first in Senate.
In Lincoln-Douglas debate, Jennifer Ramirez made it to the semi-finals and tied for third place.
In Public Forum debate, partners Mack Nelson and Brynne McMurray also tied for third against their competition.
Moapa also placed finalists in both varsity and junior varsity Spar debates, a relatively new event for the school. In Varsity, Nephi Boren placed third and Abigail Wallace was sixth. In junior varsity Spar, Kristopher Keeton placed second.
Moapa Valley ended up winning the entire tournament in the school sweepstakes. In this, points from all the teams are tallied to see who has the most points.
“We won because we worked hard through the break and every day after school,” Brinker said. “I’m very pleased with how my students did and their effort that they put into the program. I’m excited to see how they will do in the next tournament.”
During the award ceremony Coach Brinker was recognized by the seniors and was given the credit for his hard work in setting up the tournament as well as teaching each of his students. The team also wishes to thank all the members of the community who helped out by judging, donating items, and in many other ways.
