The Free State High School speech team claimed its sixth straight state championship over the weekend, completing a sweep of state titles this year after winning the debate crown in January.
This is the seventh time in 43 years that a school has won both the debate and speech titles, according to a USD 497 news release. Free State is the only school to have done this twice — first in 2019.
Two Firebirds claimed three individual championships.
Senior Anwen Williams won first in informative speaking and international extemporaneous speaking, and senior Gilly Falin won first in Lincoln Douglas debate.
Williams also placed third in oration, with junior Breahna Randall in fifth. Senior Kaitlynn Sedich placed second in program of oral interpretation. Junior Olive Minor finished fourth in prose. Junior Lena Hasiuk was runner-up in U.S. extemporaneous speaking.
Free State is under the direction of first-year head coach Parker Hopkins. Assistant coaches include Michael Shelton, Katie McGaughey, Kelly Thompson, Drew Raney and Tim Huffman.
In the 1A division, Bishop Seabury finished ninth out of 36 schools. Five students competed for Bishop Seabury: Katie Mastrosimone, Lillian Meier, Ben Patterson, Eliza Brockhoff and Margaret Mulhern.
Patterson placed first in extemporaneous speaking; Brockhoff placed second in impromptu speaking; and Mastrosimone and Brockhoff placed third in duet.
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Cuyler Dunn (he/him), a contributor to The Lawrence Times since April 2022, is a student at the University of Kansas School of Journalism. He is a graduate of Lawrence High School where he was the editor-in-chief of the school’s newspaper, The Budget, and was named the 2022 Kansas High School Journalist of the Year. Read his complete bio here. Read more of his work for the Times here.
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