JACKSON HOLE, Wyo. — The Jackson Hole High School Speech and Debate Team last weekend competed in a sizeable virtual tournament hosted by the University of Wyoming.
Jackson had just 19 competitors at the 29-school meet that featured teams from Wyoming as well as from several other states such as Missouri, Kentucky, and Idaho. The Jackson team managed to advance several students to semifinal and final rounds, and earned an overall 5th place team finish in 4A.
Cheyenne East, with nearly a hundred competitors, placed 1st. Bishop Kelly High School of Boise, Idaho placed 2nd. Cheyenne Central grabbed 3rd and Natrona County, Casper took 4th.
Senior and team captain, William Aepli placed 3rd in extemporaneous speaking, and 2nd with fellow team captain and senior Lily Briggs in Public Forum Debate, arguing the benefits and harms of government regulation of cryptocurrency.
In Novice Lincoln-Douglas Debate, debating the pros and cons of the unconditional right to strike, freshman Oscar Andersen earned the 2nd place top speaker award. Other top speaking awards in debate went to Aepli, in 2nd; Briggs, in 3rd; sophomore James Neishabouri in 6th; and senior and team captain Carter Worcester in 9th.
Junior Alexis Hernandez reached the semifinals in two of his three events—Extemporaneous Speaking and Original Oratory. Sarah Schweitzer also reached the semifinals in Extemporaneous Speaking.
Congressional Debate was again an area of success for Jackson. All eight of its competitors in this event reached Super Congress finals including varsity members Carter Worcester, juniors Maya Worcester and Ventura Garcia, sophomores James Neishabouri and Jackson Neishabouri, novice members freshmen Ben Moffet and Jasper Brandenburg, and Lily Briggs earned 1st place overall in the event.
Sophomore Sascha Mizelle placed 5th in Humorous Interpretation. Juniors Ventura Garcia Perez and Maya Worcester took 7th in Duet.
Assistant coach Peggy Gagnon is proud to say the students did extremely well in their individual rounds in the face of very challenging competition from much larger teams.
The team is looking forward to its largest tournament of the season this coming weekend—a virtual meet hosted by Cheyenne East.
