Ogallala Speech Meet

       On February sixteenth, the Chadron Speech team attended the Ogallala meet in Ogallala, Nebraska. The team performed well, with many of its competitors making it to finals and earning medals.

       The Ogallala meet is infamous to many schools for being an extremely large and difficult meet. CHS Senior Claire Margetts, who has been to the meet all four years of her high school career, said, “The Ogallala meet is typically the biggest and most competitive meet that we attend. Everybody brings their A-game.”  Maddi Pelton, a CHS sophomore, weighed in on the subject, “It [the Ogallala meet] is usually so big that the commons area where teams set up camp is always flooded with people, so much to the point where it is hard to walk.” 

       Margetts and Pelton both compete in two events: OID and Duet. “There were nearly twenty-six teams in both OID and Duet,” Pelton said, “This is definitely a ton considering most meets barely have ten in each event.” Most students tend to feel extremely nervous before performing at this meet no matter how talented or skilled they are. “I felt very nervous at first, considering my OID accidentally left the books we need to perform with on the bus,” Margetts said. “After we got them back I relaxed. Since it is such a big meet I didn’t expect to final nor did I feel pressure to.” 

       Both ladies did very well in both of their events; both making it to finals and placing very high. Pelton’s OID placed 10th and her duet placed 6th. Meanwhile, Margetts’s duet placed 4th and her OID, “Hercules” were the 1st place champions of their category. 

      “By far, my favorite part of the meet was making Ogallala finals for the first time in all my four years of speech,” Margetts said. “It was such a satisfying feeling and priceless moment.” However, Pelton’s favorite part of the meet was the ride home. “It’s about three hours to Ogallala. On the way there everyone just tries to catch up on some extra sleep. But on the way home everybody is fired up and starts to play games! It’s always fun to hang out with friends on the bus!” 

       Overall, the Chadron Speech team did an amazing job at one of their hardest meets of the season.  They not only perform successfully and receive awards, they also have fun while doing it.