Eleven members of the Okarche High School speech team competed recently in the 2019 SWOSU Invitational Speech and Debate Tournament, bringing home eight placings and a share of the class 3A Sweepstakes title.

Both Okarche and Fairview tallied 45 points in the two-day contest to tie for the first-place team plaque.

Jack Schroeder claimed the first-place medal in Lincoln-Douglas debate.

In original oratory, Katie Bomhoff received all three first-place ballots to win the championship award.

Two other OHS speech students also swept the first-place rankings to win their events. Angelica Mojica was the tournament champion in prose and Carsyn Taylor led a one-two finish in poetry with McKenna Gilles bringing home the runner-up medal.

Gilles also was a finalist in monologue.

Lyric Hickok and Emily Neuenschwander were first-place winners in dramatic duet, and Okarche had two third-place finishes in two other events: Mikaila Kraus in dramatic interp and Matt Carney in monologue.

Carney was also a finalist in poetry.

Others contributing points to the team finish were Jaxcey Beauchamp, who was fourth in both monologue and dramatic interp, and Harley Dunkin, a finalist in poetry.

Okarche will compete in their final qualifying competition at Crescent High School on Feb. 22-23 before getting ready for regional competition in March.