In an intense season that has already brought them to Chicago and Florida, the Eagan Speech team travelled to Cambridge over President’s Day weekend and to compete at the 2018 Harvard Speech Tournament. Students from all over the United States competed, with around 150-300 competitors in each event. Seven Eagan students broke to quarterfinals in their categories, including Ross Abram, Aaron Lutz, and Jason Scheller in extemporaneous speaking, Josh Drucker and Jack Flynn in duo interpretation, and Elsie Goren and Tram Nguyen in original oratory. About 200 teams took over the campus for the competition days, and also got to enjoy some snow. Claire Nelson, a junior on the team described, “I thought the campus was gorgeous, but once you went inside the building, it was kind of like you were transported back to 1920.”

The competition was a tough one for the team, but it was still a valuable experience. Sanjana Krishnamurthy, a sophomore who broke to octofinals in original oratory related, “We did everything we could do on our part and the rest is up to the judges.” Nelson, who broke to octofinals in both humorous interpretation and dramatic interpretation, also hoped to do better, but was happy with her work in a difficult round of octofinals. She expressed, “It’s very motivating and very inspiring to see people compete at a tournament like that,” where they are succeeding. Krishnamurthy also appreciated “getting to meet new people and reconnecting with all [her] friends” from other national speech tournaments.

Hopes are high heading into the rest of the season. With an MSHSL state speech tournament, NIETOC, and nationals coming, there is plenty for students to aim for. Krishnamurthy explained that her goal for this season is to make it to nationals and advance as far as she can there. Qualifying finals for nationals will occur March 10, and the sections tournament for state is on March 21. The top three students in the final round for each event will advance.