Speech winners at Staples Fourteen Cardinal speakers earned awards in the Staples Host Lions Invitational Speech Contest held at Staples Motley H.S. Saturday. They are front row, left to right: Hallie Olsen, Kaytlin Roth, Becki DeGeest. Back row: Tera Weyer, Katie Stone, Aaron Carter, Jaci Jeziorski, Shelby Wilds, Emma Motl, Alek Paskewitz, Sierra DeGeest, Jon Nypan, Samantha Weyer and A.J. Smith. (Photo by Don Sanda) It was another good week for the Staples Motley speech team as 14 members received awards at the Staples Host Lions Invitational speech contest held at Staples Motley High School Feb. 13.

For the Staples Motley team, Shelby Wilds finished in first-place in Great Speeches and Emma Motl placed second in Original Oratory. Staples Motley, as host school, was not in the running for the team honors.

Jon Nypan in Extemporaneous Reading and Becki DeGeest in Informative each placed fourth, and A.J. Smith finished in fourth place in Prose. Sierra DeGeest in Drama, Alek Paskewitz in Humor, Samantha Weyer in Informative and Jaci Jeziorski in Poetry all qualified to compete in the final round and earned blue ribbons.

Receiving red ribbons were Hallie Olsen and Tera Weyer; Briana Miles and Claire Uhlman, all in Duo Interpretation and Katie Stone in Discussion and Kaytlin Roth in Prose.

Contest winners The team of Dustin Smith, Tessa Swecker, Don Landowski, and Lonna Dumpprope from Staples Motley High School took home second place in the Ag Sales contest at University of Minnesota, Crookston. More than 1,000 area students from 50 high schools participated in the annual Ag and Natural Resources Activities Day, formerly known as Ag Activities Day. The students are pictured with Dan Svedarsky, Ph.D., professor in the Agriculture and Natural Resources Department at UMC. The home meet was different from most others because the best speakers weren’t the only ones who received recognition. Former Cardinal speech coach Frank Odell, representing the Staples Host Lions, had a captain from each team present every coach from that team a ribbon and medal to show appreciation for the hard work the coaches have done for their students to succeed.

Senior Emma Motl was pleased with the meet, “It went smoothly because of all our volunteers and the custodial staff. We had a lot of help and a lot of fun.”

The team will be traveling to Park Rapids to compete on Feb. 20.
At left, Dustin Smith took home first place individual in the Ag Sales contest and, at right, Ryan Bart took second place individual in the Forestry contest.