Jake Johnson Seniors Jacob Johnson and Casey Smithley in Duo Interpretation led the Cardinal Speech team in the Class A State Speech Tournament at Gustavus Adolphus College April 18. Jake and Casey performed a selection called "The Canal" by Spike Milligan, from a popular BBC radio series called "The Goon Show".After three preliminary rounds of competition, they ranked second of the 24 duos in the tournament. In the final round, they were tied for fifth place with Sam Cook and Zachary Taylor of Eagle Valley, to whom they lost the tie-breaker.

Junior Emma Motl in Original Oratory titled her speech "It's Not Easy Being Green", and spoke about Synesthesia, the misleading claims sellers make about the environmentally friendly qualities of their products. After three preliminary rounds, she was tied for fourth place and qualified for the final round. Emma earned the seventh place medal.

Freshman Tera Weyer concentrated on "Mnemosyne's Curiosities" in Informative Speaking and challenged her judges to recall that Mnemosyne is the Greek goddess of memory. Tera explained several aspects of human memory and outlined methods her listeners could use to improve their abilities to remember and recall important information. Tera's preliminary judges ranked her performance first, second and fourth. She entered the final round in a four-way tie for fourth place, but finished the final round in eighth place.

Casey Smithley The Cardinal Speech State Medalists felt especially honored as Staples Motley High School Principal Dean Ogg was the Minnesota State High School League representative who gave them their medals and ribbons.

Although they did not earn medals, juniors Gemma Shaffer in Storytelling and Shelby Wilds in Great Speeches performed well.

Each missed qualifying for the final round by a single point and finished in ninth place in their categories.

Junior Celeste Harlow in Extemporaneous Speaking finished in 16th place in her catergory and junior Kaytlin Roth in Extemporaneous Speaking finished in 18th place.

The Cardinal Speech team members, their families and friends with coaches Bob Shaffer, Kevin Olsen, Penny Olsen and Don Sanda, held their potluck awards program April 19 in the Fellowship Hall of Faith Lutheran Church. The team members chose senior co-captain Jenna Nypan to receive the "Outstanding Speaker of 2009" trophy and elected juniors Kaytlin Roth and Gemma Shaffer to serve as co-captains of the 2010 speech team.

Emma Motl Tera Weyer