Features

SAHS Speech team captures 1st, 3rd at national tournaments

Luis Ceja, Staff Writer|February 9, 2023

Photo by Photo courtesy of Mr. Duarte, program advisor

Over the last two months, Santa Ana High’s Speech team competed at the annual George Armstrong Heart of Illinois Invitational and Millard West Winter Wonderland (Omaha, Nebraska), placing first and 3rd, respectively, against schools from across the nation.

Santa Ana had 20 students compete and scored a total of 196 points across 34 final rounds at the George Armstrong Invitational (Bradley, Illinois), giving the team the 1st place victory in tournament sweepstakes.

The steps the team took to prepare for this tournament included practicing with peers. In preparation for upcoming tournaments, team captain Anna Cecilia Fierro said, “we will not lose motivation and will keep on practicing.”

At first, the team wasn’t aware of the win, but after some confusion on the scoring, the obstacle that was overcame with the Saints the coming out on top.

This victory is very big, team captain Kassandra Rios said. “It’s an honor because as a team captain it’s best for our team to proceed and achieve making us proud.”

At Millard West Winter Wonderland (Omaha, Nebraska), SAHS had nine student competitors and placed 3rd in tournament sweepstakes.

7 of the 9 broke into the final rounds, with Fierro and Rios taking 1st and 3rd, respectively, in Program Oral Interpretation, Fernanda Meza 1st in Dramatic Interpretation Champions, Kiahra Simmons (1st) and Julio Diaz (6th) in Dramatic Interpretation Honors, and Bryan Juarez and Grace Tinajero 1st in Duo Interpretation.

The team competes next week when it heads to Boston for the 49th Annual Harvard Forensics Invitational.