Elijah Geiser, Payton Lausten, Ana Stout, Owen Johnson and Elliana Koshenina advanced to the final round of the Bertha-Hewitt speech meet on March 14. 

On Saturday, March 14, the New York Mills speech competed in Bertha-Hewitt.

Elijah Geiser advanced to the final round in both of his events. He placed second in Poetry Interpretation with excerpts from Walt Whitman’s Song of Myself, and third in Humorous Interpretation with a cutting from the film Barbie (2023), directed by Greta Gerwig.

Also competing for the Eagles on March 14 were Izzy Felix, Megan Harder, Annabelle Specht, Marissa Uselman and Brody Stout.

Payton Lausten advanced to the final round and placed second in Prose Interpretation with her interpretation of Courtney Summers’s young adult novel All the Rage. This was  Lausten’s first time performing a revised cutting of the script.

Ana Stout advanced to the final round and placed fifth in Prose Interpretation with her interpretation of Jennette McCurdy’s Im Glad My Mom Died. 

Owen Johnson advanced to the final round and placed sixth in Informative Speaking with his speech about Victorian fashion. Johnson has been using a dress form with period pieces throughout the season, and this week he added photo boards to help the audience see how Victorian styles influenced modern dresses and stitching today.

Elliana Koshenina advanced to the final round and placed sixth in Dramatic Interpretation. Elliana performs Jerry Rabushka’s monologue Wispy Boy, in which the main character falls for a boy who is hard of hearing and learns to communicate with him.

Izzy Felix fell just short of the final round in Informative Speaking with a speech she wrote about the sport of barrel racing and earned a Superior rating.

Megan Harder earned an Excellent rating in Original Oratory with a speech she wrote about the teenage mental health crisis. Annabelle Specht earned a Superior rating in Original Oratory with a speech she wrote about poetry’s relevance in the 21st century. Marissa Uselman earned an Excellent rating in Original Oratory with a speech she wrote about the dangers of single-use plastics. Brody Stout earned a Superior rating in Storytelling. In this event, Brody draws a folk tale at random and has 30 minutes to prepare a short introduction and retell the story for a modern audience from memory. This year, students are challenged to connect every story to an overall message or theme related to wisdom.

On Thursday, March 26, the team will compete at the MSHSL West Subsection Tournament hosted at Perham High School. The top nine students in each event will advance to the Section 6A tournament.