Dakota Davis put on a stellar performance in his final regional speech and debate tournament.

The Hennessey High School senior led his team to a second-place sweepstakes finish at Northwestern Oklahoma State University in Alva on March 15-16 and earned himself a fourth trip to the state speech tournament in April. Davis went undefeated throughout the two-day tournament in three different events, first garnering a perfect 3-0 record with partner Nadia Valles in cross examination debate, ultimately becoming the regional champions. Then in the individual events portion of the competition, Davis also received “straight 1’s” (all first place rankings from judges) throughout six preliminary and final tournament rounds to win two more regional championships in monologue and domestic extemporaneous speaking.

For Valles, in addition to her CX debate win, she added a regional championship in foreign extemporaneous speaking to her collection, and was regional runner-up in original oratory, all while powering through a nasty case of laryngitis.

In Lincoln-Douglas debate, Hennessey newcomer Claire Ullery defeated seasoned four-year debaters to become the regional runner-up. She was also a finalist in humorous interp.

The freshman CX debate team of Milisa Heskett and Ashland Crites will also be making their first appearance at state as they were regional runners-up. Both freshmen qualified in two events as Heskett received third place in domestic extemp and Crites received fourth. Each girl was also a finalist in standard oratory as well.

Other team members who earned their way to final rounds, gaining sweepstakes points toward the team’s runner-up finish, included Jaden Matthews in monologue; and Pedro Valle and Emma Venable in domestic extemp. Grace Curran also competed in LD debate.

This is the fifth year for HHS to have a competitive speech and debate team and the fifth consecutive year they have sent members to the state tournament.

The team has produced numerous regional champions and two state champions, Josh Hill in 2015 and Malina Lemmons in 2017.

They are coached by Linda Soudek.

The 2019 state tournament will be held April 4-6 on the campus of the University of Oklahoma.