The Speech and Debate team officially won a total of five ribbons at a meet at Patterson Mill High School on Thursday, Nov. 15.

Junior Kayla Bynion won first place for Dramatic Interpretation, and a group including sophomores Billy Jump, Jen Linsenmeyer, Hanna LeBuhn, Ashley Hunter, and Justin Hawkins won first in Reader’s Theater.

“I’m really proud of Kayla because she entered a new event and she worked hard at her piece and she was successful. That big Reader’s Theater group too, they’d done that event before, but this was their first time trying out a new piece and they won,” Speech and Debate Moderator Bob Schick said.

In addition to the larger Reader’s Theater group, juniors Hope Kelly and Casey Reil won second in the same category. “We swept [Reader’s Theater] because our team had the only two entries,” Schick said. Kelly also placed third in Original Oratory.

In addition to these official winners, junior Margaret McGuirk’s score for Interpretation of Prose was miscalculated. According to Schick’s count, she should have placed second instead of not placing at all.

“Unfortunately, it’s not the first time that something like this has happened to the team, but it is only one meet and I have the whole season ahead,” McGuirk said. “Hopefully Mr. Schick will be able to work it out with the judges so that they can give me credit for placing, but, in the meantime, at least I know that I did well.”

Brianna Glase is the Online Chief for the Patriot and jcpatriot.com.