Orono, Westonka speakers advance at national tourney

The National Individual Events Tournament of Champions (NIETOC) brought together the nation’s best and brightest students in Oral Interpretation and Public Address categories to compete in a national tournament which took place at Bellevue West High School in Bellevue, Neb. Speakers from across the country earned an invitation to NIETOC based on their performance at various tournaments throughout the season. This year there were 1,600 entries from across the nation.

Four speakers from Orono’s speech team and one from the Mound/Westonka team competed at this year’s NIETOC. The qualifiers from Orono were freshman Ruby Gehrman in Dramatic Interpretation, sophomore McKenna Monger in Dramatic interpretation and Program Oral Interpretation (POI), senior team captain Madeleine Dore in Humorous Interpretation, and sophomore Isaac Hess in Informative Speaking. Also qualifying for NIETOC was freshman Sophie Middleton, who qualified in Dramatic Interpretation, but opted not to compete in the tournament. Mound/Westonka’s team captain Hannah Christenson qualified in Original Oratory.

Christenson advanced to Octafinals in Original Oratory, and Gehrman advanced to Octafinals in Dramatic Interpretation in her very first national tournament.

Monger advanced to Quarterfinals in Program Oral Interpretation, and Dore advanced to Quarterfinals in Humorous Interpretation, picket-fencing her Octafinal round by being ranked first by all judges in that round.

This was Dore’s final NIETOC; over her career she is a 3-time Octafinalist and 1-time Quarterfinalist in Humorous Interpretation, a 2-time Octafinalist in Duo Interpretation, and a 1-time Quarterfinalist in Duet Acting.

The team members were accompanied to the tournament by Orono head coach Barb Shofner and assistant coach Nicolle Berg and Mound/Westonka co-head coaches Megan Lhotka and Heidi Richardson-Duggan.

Shofner was very pleased with the speakers’ performances, noting that it “was such an amazing opportunity to watch our speakers compete at the highest level, amongst the best of the best from across the country.”