After seeing their best performance to date in the six-year history of the Hennessey High School speech and debate team and fresh off of a fourth-place fi nish at the Oklahoma State Speech and Debate Championships last spring, the 2019-20 season began with a bang for the HHS team as it walked away with the class 3A tournament championship and the novice division runner-up sweepstakes trophy at the Okarche Speech Tournament held Nov. 1-2.

Hennessey debaters Nadia Valles and Ronny Robles took first place in cross-examination debate while teammates Ashland Crites and Milisa Heskett took second.

In Lincoln-Douglas debate, seniors Claire Ullery and Pedro Valle took fi rst and second place, respectively.

The debaters also performed well in the events of domestic and foreign extemporaneous speaking, with Valles taking fi rst place and Heskett receiving third place in foreign, and Valle claiming first place and Crites taking second place in domestic extemp.

In other individual events, Hennessey swept standard oratory with Crites taking first place, Heskett receiving second place and newcomer Rachel Miller taking third.

In addition, sophomore Jaden Matthews received first place in monologue.

Also contributing points to the sweepstakes win by making final rounds was freshman Ronny Robles in domestic extemp and prose. Freshman Raiven Bedford also competed in prose.

In novice division, which is reserved for either fi rstyear high school competitors or junior high students, two Hennessey students, Makyla Schmidt and Laura Ullery, combined to bring home the runner-up sweepstakes trophy.

Schmidt received first place in novice domestic extemporaneous speaking and Ullery took fi rst place in novice prose.

“I’m pleased with the team’s performance, especially since there were so many new team members who had never competed before,” said Linda Soudek, the team’s coach.

HHS next competes Nov. 22-23 at the Marlow Tournament.