By Lorrie Ham Sophomore Merrick Gormley finished fifth in Poetry at the State Speech Tournament at Wayzata High School on April 13. Gormley was the first Westonka competitor to qualify for the state tournament in seven years. Over 300 Minnesota schools compete in speech, with several hundred competitors in every category competing to get to the

By Lorrie Ham Westonka Speech broke a number of team records on April 6 at the MSHSL Section 2AA Tournament in Hutchinson, including advancing sophomore Merrick Gormley to state. Gormley is the first Westonka competitor to qualify for the state tournament in seven years. The team brought a record number of 22 competitors to sections,

By Lorrie Ham Westonka Speech competed March 8 at the National Speech & Debate Association (NSDA) National Qualifier Tournament, where sophomore Merrick Gormley became the first Mound Westonka High School student to advance to the semifinals. There were a total of 20 schools competing for the Southern Minnesota District, with 393 competitors. Westonka Speech had

By Lorrie Ham Westonka Speech competed at the Wright County Conference meet Feb. 28. With a total of 93 sweepstake points, Westonka placed second in the conference, the highest placement in recent years, and will advance to sections. Two Westonka Speech competitors were the champions in their categories: eighth-grader Grace Cunningham in Discussion and junior

By Lorrie Ham Westonka Speech competed at the Feb. 23 Chaska Invitational, where several Mound Westonka High School competitors ended up on the podium. Sophomore Josh Nkhata broke into Finals for Drama and placed fourth overall in the category. Nkhata also broke in to Next-In Finals for Creative Expression and placed fifth. Junior Grace Hanson

By Lorrie Ham The Westonka speech team competed at the STMA Invitational on Feb. 9, earning enough individual trophies to score the second-place team trophy in the large school division. Individual successes that contributed to the second-place finish included two first-place finishes, two third-place finishes, one fourth-place finish, one fifth-place finish and one seventh-place finish.

By Lorrie Ham Westonka Speech competed in a middle school tournament hosted by New Prague on Valentine’s Day and placed second overall in the team division. Mound Westonka High School eighth-grader Ilana Andrev placed first in Extemporaneous Speaking, and ninth-grader Griffin Meisel placed third. Andrev was also the champion of Informative Speaking, her second first-place

By Lorrie Ham The Westonka Speech Team competed at the season favorite Marshall Speech Spectacular Jan. 25-26, when nearly 40 students participated. While several competitors broke into out rounds, Mound Westonka High School juniors Anders Erdahl and Grace Hanson both made it to the podium, where Erdahl placed fifth in discussion and Hanson was sixth.

By Lorrie Ham The Westonka Speech Team, along with the Orono Speech Team, co-hosted the third annual Odyssey Speech tournament on Jan. 19. Almost 500 students from 14 different schools descended upon Mound Westonka High School to compete in what was most likely the first tournament for many of the competitors. Westonka Speech was a

By Lorrie Ham Nine Westonka speech competitors advanced to the Region 2AA North/West section tournament on April 17 at Chaska High School after competing in the subsection tournament April 11 in New Ulm. Competing at sections were: ninth-grader Merrick Gormley, Poetry; sophomore Grace Hanson, Discussion; junior Taylor Hummelsund, Poetry; ninth-grader Katherine Johnson, Informative; ninth-grader Hayden