Darlington High School earned the Excellence in Speech Award at the Wisconsin High School Forensic Association state competition for the 21st time since 1990.
This award is given to the top 5% of schools competing in the state competition. This year the contest was held on April 17-18 at the University of Wisconsin. There were 344 schools and 4571 students competing in the overall competition.
Darlington High School had 18 gold medals, three silver medals, and four bronze medals with a team score of 89 points out of a possible 100.
Results were as follows: receiving bronze medals were: Kaitlyn Reichling—prose, Sam Cohen—radio speaking, Jared Meister—oratory and Kim Sniff—special occasion.
Receiving silver medals were: Allison Horne—prose, Erin Wolf—four minute speech and Blake Cwynar—demonstration.
Receiving gold medals were: Siara Bergeson—prose; Gabrielle Steiner—farrago; Sydney Brandt—solo acting; Sadie Fitzsimons—solo acting; Hannah Hauser—solo acting; Edgar Mendez—solo acting; Bailey McDonald—storytelling; Isabel Wedig—storytelling; Hope Francis—moments in history; Paige Schilling—four minute speech; Jackson Hemming—radio speaking; Cora Carpenter—oratory; Julia Hardt—poetry; Josh Weaver—poetry; Dylan Busch, Katie Calvert, Bailey Jones, Molly McDaniel and Courtney Wallin—group interpretation; Savannah Bergeson, Johanna Meister, Gunnar Rielly, Thomas Schultz and Megan Wiegel—group interpretation; Cole McDonald, Ben Muhlstein, Dane Siegenthaler and Jason Singer—play acting; Allie Kissel, Jaci Moseley, Shauna Volkening and Meghan Weber—play acting.
Alternates were Emma Crist, Conner Hackett, Hannah Kelly, Jacob Riechers and Cheyenne Schuetz. Coaches were Carmen Rielly, Leona Havens, Kalee Crist and Rayna O’Brien.