Naperville-area students had a strong showing at the IHSA Speech State Finals last weekend, held at the Peoria Civic Center in Peoria.
Neuqua turns out three first-place wins, second in team
The local team that dominated was Neuqua Valley High School, which tied with Downers Grove South for second in the team sweepstakes, placing just three points behind the top scorer, Hinsdale Central, who received a 29.
Neuqua students took a number of firsts:
- Yashika Singh for Informative Speaking
- Charlie Krol for Oratorical Declamation
- Zamirah Brandon for Poetry Reading
Neuqua’s Zamirah Brandon also took second for Original Oratory. And scoring within the top six for prose reading was Neuqua’s Lucy Fosdick, who took fourth.
Metea Valley, Naperville Central, and IMSA students place
Metea Valley had four students who placed within the top six at state in their categories:
- Metea’s Sreeya Ayyagari took second for Extemporaneous Speaking.
- Matthew Bigham and Mily Tamhankar came in fifth for Dramatic Duet Acting.
- Ojas Sachan came in fifth in Informative Speaking.
And rounding out the wins for local students was Naperville Central’s Debabandya Dash, who walked away with third place for Extemporaneous Speaking, and Illinois Math and Science Academy’s Molly Federici, who took sixth place in Radio Speaking.
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