Golden Hawks brought home five division I ratings at a recent speech contest. Eight Mid-Prairie Large Group Speech teams competed last Saturday in Camanche at the River Valley Conference Large Group Speech Contest.

Five of those teams received a Division 1 rating, the highest rating a team can achieve. Those teams were:

• First place in the Musical Theatre Category – Jillian Clark, Ryann Dolan, Tabitha Fisher, Seth Groenewold, Wren Harris, Caroline Schrader, Parker Thomas, and Georgia White
• First place in the Ensemble Acting Category – Tabitha Fisher, Greyson Ghumm, Seth Groenewold, Caroline Schrader, and Georgia White
• First place in the Ensemble Acting category – Wren Harris and Lilly Redig
• Second place in the Group Improvisation category – Jillian Clark, Brock Lowenberg and Greyson Ghumm
• Third place in the Readers Theatre category – Meredith Campbell, Ryann Dolan, Brock Lowenberg, Fiona McClellen, Stella Miller, Rebekah Rand, Lilly Redig, Addison Skelton, Parker Thomas, and Alastair Yeggy

The other three teams received a Division 2 rating.

• Group Improvisation – Gabriel Groff and Ben Trotta
• Short Film – Zoë Forbes and Maëlys Beachy.
• Ensemble Acting – Fiona McClellen, Addison Skelton and Ben Trotta.

Mid-Prairie Speech Coach Christine Meader spoke with KCII ahead of the contest and says it takes quite a bit of confidence to compete in speech events, “We always say that we’re an extreme sport because we do for fun what most people fear worse than death. Which most people fear? Public speaking, worse than actually dying. So that’s what we do for fun. But really, it’s so fun. Our team is close knit, and they support each other. Speech is for anybody that has something to say.”

The Mid-Prairie Speech team will next compete at districts this Saturday hosted at Wapello. Teams that receive a Division 1 ranking there move onto the state competition at Clear Creek Amana on February 7th.