By Meena Ropp
January 20, 2020
On Saturday at the 2020 Wide Field High School speech and debate competition, Centennial High School took third out of all of the other competing schools.
Many of our fellow students contributed to the success at this difficult tournament, specifically sophomore Talia Montera, senior Ben Christoferson, and junior Andrew Li.
Each of these talented people received first place ranks in their events, earning cheers of excitement from the rest of the team.
Talia Montera, earning first place in poetry, said she was thrilled to have won after a difficult time during her freshman year.
“I’m just so excited to have gotten first, I mean I didn’t even make finals last year,” Montera explained.
Ben Christoferson, taking first place in drama, explained that he was glad his piece “Tell Tale Heart” was well received at the competition.
“I was worried that the judges wouldn’t like my presentation because my piece can sometimes come off as a bit much,” Christoferson said.
Andrew Li, taking first place in international Extemp, said his hard work and dedication to his research and speaking skills were greatly rewarded.
“I was hoping to get farther than I got last year, and all that work really paid off,” Li explained.
David Montera, the team’s coach, congratulated all of his competitors on their success at the tournament, for he was excited his dedication to his students allowed them to travel far and find triumph.
“It feels good to see your team up there on stage knowing that they’ll take a medal home with them,” said Montera.
Since the speech and debate team placed in the top ranks of the competition, they yelled an exciting Bulldog chant once they arrived back at Centennial High School.
In the chant, the team spelled out the word “Bulldog”, and at the end they yelled out their team name followed by plenty of cheering.
“The chant started back when I was at school, and it was always fun to get pumped up after a big win at a tournament,” Montera said.
After the team’s big success, they hoped they would perform just as well if not better for the upcoming tournament.
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