The Speech and Debate team had 27 qualifiers that took on states on March 6 and 7.
The team placed sixth overall at states, which is the highest placement for GlenOak High School since 2008. GlenOak was the only team to win state titles in two events.
There were three semifinalists: James Hoffman, Jamee Bunnell and Katie Dever, and six quarterfinalists: Lucy Mitchell, Jacob Gibbs, Bode Stephan, Rachel Talbott, Francesca Codispoti and Aria Culp.
Marena Winn and Conner Belden placed third. The team had one runner-up: Johari Abdul- Zahir.
Cory Hillton and Charlie Burton placed first. Burton was GlenOak’s first back-to-back state champion.
Hillton was GlenOak’s first team member to champion an interpretation event. Hillton competes in Program Oral Interpretation, a 10-minute speech event consisting of published literature, poetry, songs and articles built up to convey a message with societal value. Members are given characters to essentially act out their speech.
“My mindset was on making sure that I spoke with as much passion and truth as possible,” Hitlon said. “I think what helped me prepare most this season was trying to figure out what I wanted my audience to feel when I spoke.”
Burton competes in a speech event called Original Oratory, in which a student writes a 10-minute speech on a social issue a student feels passionately about.
“I have to go in with the mindset of having fun or else I’ll be too focused on winning rather than performing at my best,” Burton said. “This year, the topic I decided to handle is how communities of color are less likely to diagnose their children with neurodevelopmental disorders due to medical trauma in the black community.”
Burton worked hard this season to prepare. She watched old videos of other competition performances to analyze the competition and also see how she could do better. In the end, her hard work paid off.
“I tied the final round with my best friend Johari Abdul- Zahir and we went through the tie breaker together. Going one and two in the state with her is probably one of the best feelings I have ever had,” Burton said. “Winning states isn’t something you can entirely decide; it’s about the consistency of your performance.”
Coach Megan Rea feels the team’s success was tied to the strong group of upperclassmen.
“ This group of upperclassmen have been an integral part of our team’s growth over the last few seasons, and set high goals and standards for the season. They worked with our underclassmen from day one to help develop them as people and competitors,” Rae said. “You know it’s a special group when multiple people on the team are crying excitedly because one of their teammates qualified to elimination rounds at a tournament.”
Hilton feels like the coaches really helped influence the team this year.
“For me, the best feeling was giving the chance to my coaches to have that feeling (of winning),” Hillton said. “They continue to tell me to win for myself, but winning for myself is winning for the team and that was the best part about winning States for me.”
