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By Mavis Fodness
The Luverne High School speech team finished in a tie for fourth place with Tracy-Milroy-Balaton with 31 points each at the Section 3A speech tournament in Marshall.
River Valley High School captured the section crown with 45 points.
Ten Luverne students broke into the final rounds.
The top three finishers in each of the 24 speech categories at sections move on to Friday’s class A Minnesota State High School Speech Tournament in Wayzata.
Seno Chanthalangsy, a sophomore, is making his state tournament debut after placing first in humorous interpretation.
Freshman Chance Tunnissen finished second in extemporaneous speaking, and senior Shane Berning placed third in the same category.
The 2019 state tournament is Tunnissen’s second appearance, and Berning is making his third.
Twenty-four Luverne students competed at Saturday’s section meet.
Earning medals at the section meet but not moving on to state competition are Parker Carbonneau, fifth, extemporaneous speaking; Jordan Winter, fourth, great speeches; Xavier Carbonneau, fourth, prose; Meagan Hansen, fifth, original oratory; Alexa Chesley, fourth, discussion; Melanie Rittenhouse, fifth, discussion; and Sage Ver Steeg, fourth, prose.
The top three finishers in each category from the eight sections compete at the state tournament, where the top eight finishers move into the final medals round.
Three Adrian High School students will compete at the Minnesota State High School Speech Tournament Friday at Wayzata High School.
Sabdi Bravo, Tommy Morrison and Maritz Beltran qualified at the Section 3A tournament Saturday at Southwest Minnesota State University in Marshall.
Bravo, a senior, placed third in informative speaking, earning her third trip to the state meet.
Last year Bravo finished second in informative speaking at the state contest, and in 2017 she finished sixth.
Morrison, a senior, was third in original oratory.
He is making his first trip to the state competition in his second year participating in speech.
Beltran placed first at the section meet in poetry.
She also qualified for last year’s state meet and continued her mastery of the category by being a finalist in the section tournament, a position Beltran has achieved each year since the seventh grade.