Talkin' Tigers win record-breaking U-Bus-2-Us tourney

From left, Miriam Forrest and Nick Duvall discuss strategy before the first round of the U-Bus-2-Us tournament at Mountain Home High School. Duvall went on to become one of the top three speakers in his respective house during Saturday's student Congress competition. Photo by Brian S. Orban

Facing a record-shattering pack of competitors, the Mountain Home High School Talkin' Tigers defeated 23 other high schools over the weekend to win the U-Bus-2-Us Speech and Debate tournament held here.

The U-Bus-2-Us tournament became the largest of its kind in western Idaho, bringing together 497 students representing 24 high schools from Weiser to Wood River.

Hosting one of the state's biggest gathering of motivational speakers, the Talkin' Tigers finished first in both speech and debate while earning the overall sweepstakes trophy over their rivals from Eagle High School.

Mountain View High School finished third during the two-day event with Bishop Kelly placing fourth.

Celebrating its third year here, the U-Bus-2-Us event outgrew its former location at the junior high school after hosting 18 schools in 2009. This year's competition filled the high school's available classrooms, including the 13 temporary buildings added last fall to accommodate its new freshmen class.

The event marked the second straight year the Talkin' Tigers have won on their home turf.

During the event's speech events Friday afternoon, the Mountain Home team won three of the 13 events. Sophomore Cristina Trouten led the Tigers, placing first in both humorous and serious interpretation. Trouten qualified for the National Speech and Debate Tournament last year as a freshman.

Junior Chelsea Wegrzyniak won in the oratorical analysis event. She went on to finish second in varsity Lincoln-Douglas debate on Saturday after losing a split decision in the championship round.

Senior Chasity Custer posted perfect scores in her preliminary rounds of serious interpretation and finished second to teammate Christina Trouten in the finals. Sophomore Stephanie Jewell also made it to the final round in serious interpretation to finish fifth.

Meanwhile, Katie Siira, a sophomore and a first-year speech student, finished second among the 25 competitors in original oratory. Juniors Chase Bennett and Jared Gales also finished second among 27 entries in duo interpretation.

Other top competitors included Senior Raif Armstrong, who finished fifth during the radio speaking finals after topping the pack in the preliminaries. Patricia Wade, also a senior, was second out of 37 entries in the preliminary rounds of expository speaking and placed fifth in the final.

Completing the scoring for the Tigers included Joann King, who took fourth in serious interpretation, while Arrianna Montgomery was fifth in after-dinner speaking.

Other notable performances by Mountain Home students that didn't move on to the finals include Alyssa Cannavo in salesmanship, freshman Brandon Sams in expository speaking, Jessica Tindall in panel discussion and Melodie Lettkeman and Ryan Pennington in duo.

Mountain Home High School turned in a dominating performance during Saturday's debate competition with the Tigers moving on in three of the six final rounds.

The team of Jessica Bott and Chasity Custer went undefeated in six rounds to win the varsity public forum event, marking the second straight year that Custer won the event during the tournament here.

Erika Sabol and Rodrigo Main went on to place third in varsity public forum. Meanwhile, the novice public forum teams of San Juana Martinez and Jonathon Dodge as well as Elijah Nixon and Katie Siira were quarter finalists while James McGovern and partner Matt Patterson placed third.

In addition to Chelsea Wegrzyniak's second-place finish in varsity Lincoln Douglas debate, freshman Coby Bobzien finished second in the novice debate category.

Melodie Lettkeman and Marissa Aiken were quarter finalists in the varsity policy debate division while Morgan Lehto and Allie Steadman were quarter finalists in the novice division.

Mountain Home students also faired well in student Congress with Robert Welle named top speaker in his round. Meanwhile, Dani Lord, Dylan Nute, Rodrigo Main, Jessica Bott, Nick Duvall, Calebb Traylor, Joshua Saporta and Doug Watkins were among the top three speakers in their respective houses of student Congress.

See the Mountain Home News Photo Gallery for more photos.