The Gothenburg Speech Team finished in the top 10 in Class B at the 2022 NSAA State Speech Championships in Kearney. Classes A and B kicked off competition on Wednesday, March 16 where eight speeches were presented in Class B by area students.
Broken Bow and Gothenburg were the two KCNI/KBBN area schools to have students qualify in Class B. Broken Bow’s Anna Lindstrom and Rylan Miller presented well, but were unable to qualify for the finals. Gothenburg sent six students to the state championships, but only two of those six were able to qualify for the finals.
Bronson Long is the Class B Humorous Prose State Champion after finishing with a near-perfect score in the preliminary round and in the finals. He was the only competitor to earn first-place votes from two of the three judges in the final round.
Callum Ward, who finished first at the B-6 District in Extemporaneous Speaking, qualified for the finals at state, but finished behind Alex Hagestad of Elkhorn North and Jeremy Hunter from Aurora. Ward earned 11 points in the finals which was enough to put him into the bronze medal position.
In the team races, Millard North was the Class A Champion with 182 points while Lincoln East finished runner-up with 178 points. The Class B State Champion for the sixth year in a row was York with 142 points and Gering finished runner-up with 94 points. Gothenburg finished 9th in the team race with 36 points.
