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   On the final Saturday of spring break, the Walker Speech Team attended the last invitational tournament of the season. Before daybreak, the team boarded the bus to attend the Melrose Speech Extravaganza. It was truly a spectacular and elaborate event. In addition to hosting a scavenger hunt, dance competition, and special coach and speaker shout-out, the Melrose team hosted 41 schools with over 650 speaking entries. This was by far the largest tournament the team has attended this season. Walker speakers were competing against anywhere from 20 to over 70 speakers in their respective categories, which makes their accomplishments all the more impressive. 

   In the largest category of the day, with 73 speakers total, Jace Ungerecht earned an honorable mention in Humor. Brooklyn Hanson placed 4th in the honor final round of Informative. Isaias Jimenez McMurrin placed 5th in the honor final round of Oratory. Elaina Dascalos placed 4th in the honor final round of Prose. Elijah Cox placed 5th in the honor final round of Prose. Finally, breaking into the final round, Lola Krueckeberg placed 7th in the category of Informative. 

   In the team sweepstakes, Melrose, Willmar, and Russell-Tyler-Ruthton placed 1st through 3rd respectively. 

   The invitational part of the season is now complete, however, there is still plenty of competition left for the WHA Speech Team. This weekend, over a two day period, the team will compete in Willmar at the Northern Lights NSDA Qualifying tournament. Winners at this tournament will determine who will compete at the national speech tournament this summer in Richmond, Virginia. This tournament is exclusive to 9-12th grade speakers, and the Walker team will be bringing 7 competitors. Finally, next Tuesday, the team will begin the first round of elimination tournaments on the road to state. On March 31st, the team will compete at the Subsection 29A tournament in Cass Lake-Bena. Speakers that advance will then compete at the Section 8A tournament. 

   There was one special addition to the Melrose tournament that is worth highlighting. The Melrose Team offered a “Heart and Soul of Speech Award.” This award is supposed to go to a member of the team that demonstrates hard work and perseverance. The Walker Talkers were proud to nominate our own speaker Angelique White. Angelique has shown continued dedication in practice and each individual round by celebrating her own growth and by reaching individual milestones. She celebrates her victories with pride and the drive to keep improving. In her first year of speech, she chose to compete in the category of Discussion, where every round speakers face a new challenge of group problem solving. Angelique consistently focuses on the positive and shows improvement at every tournament. We are proud of you Angelique-keep up the good work! 

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