Spuds snag second place at Eastview

Post date: Feb 21, 2016 3:08:39 AM

With a season-high 46 speakers advancing to final rounds, including 30 in the championship (varsity) division, the Moorhead Spuds earned second place in team sweepstakes at the Star Tribune Eastview Lightning Classic, distancing themselves from third place Eagan and inching closer to Apple Valley, which won their fourth consecutive metro-area invitational.

After finishing fourth overall at last year's tournament, the Spuds racked up team points in 13 categories, totaling 828 points, the most by Moorhead since they posted 1077 points at the St. Cloud SpecTECHular in March of 2011.

Highlights from a successful day in Apple Valley at Eastview:

-The Spuds swept the top three spots in Prose, with Delana Haglund winning her first tournament of the season. It's also the first varsity victory for the fourth-year speaker; Last year, Haglund took first place in the open division of prose at Eastview. She is also coming off winning the next-in final round at East Ridge last weekend. Junior Jessica Anderson continued her impressive season with her fourth top-two finish in prose, while senior Lexi Francis earned her fourth overall medal on the season, finishing third.

-Less than a week after advancing to the semifinal round at Harvard, junior Devon Solwold (Drama) and sophomore Izzy Larson (POI) once again double broke into varsity finals. The duo finished third overall while each speaker took home second place in their respective categories. Larson also advanced to the next-in championship final round in Drama and earned second place.

-After knocking on the doorstep each of the last three weekends, junior Sarah Schulz finally took home top honors in informative speaking. It's her fourth consecutive final round appearance, all of which have ended in top-three finishes.

-Open division speakers Alyssa Haagenson (Storytelling) and Bridget McManamon (Extemporaneous Speaking) also earned first place finishes. For Haagenson, she has now reached the final round in all five of her tournament appearances, winning three times. This is the third final round appearance for McManamon and her first win in this category. McManamon now has two career first place finishes. The other came last year at Chanhassen in Novice Creative Expression.

-Humor led all categories with six speakers advancing to final rounds: Championship division finalists Alex Church (4th) and Skyler Klostriech (5th); Championship division next-in finalists Ariana Grollman (5th) and Abby Dahlberg (7th); and Open division finalists Sophia Klindt (4th) and Ella Halgrimson (6th). Church (Creative) and Dahlberg (Duo with her brother Sean Dahlberg) also double broke to Championship next-in finals.

-Carolyn Solberg (Great Speeches) has now reached varsity finals in five straight tournaments, finishing in the top four each time (two victories). Solberg finished in third place this weekend while teammate Miah Lee reached her third final round, finishing 7th.

The Spuds will take a week off from the road as they host their annual invitational tournament. Rounds begin at 9:30 a.m. with the national final round of Extemporaneous Musical Theatre scheduled to start at 3:00 p.m. Awards begin at 4 p.m. and will be streamed live on The Cube. Watch SpudSpeech.org and our Facebook and Twitter feeds for updates throughout the week.