Osky Students Represent Well At National Speech And Debate

Oskaloosa Optimist president, R.D. Keep, right, presented Oskaloosa seniors Elliott Nelson and Abigail Lindgren with a $500 check on behalf of the club to defray expenses for their participation in a national Congressional debate contest in Mesa, Ariz.

by Jessica Weinreich

Oskaloosa should be extremely proud of Elliot Nelson and Abby Lindgren as they represented our town and state at the National Speech and Debate Competition held in Phoenix, Arizona last week. They faced four grueling days of debate and performance against thousands of students from hundreds of school across the nation (and some other countries!) in Congressional debate and poetry. The East Iowa District is one of the smallest in the nation, so we truly were in the big leagues at this tournament.

In Congress debate, in order to “break” past elimination into the “out” rounds, students must place in the top six in their preliminary rounds/chambers. Abby Lindgren came close, ranking within three of the cutoff, just shy of qualifying for quarter finals in the House competition. In Senate, Elliot Nelson was within five ranks of qualifying for the semi-finals. Both students had tough chambers – their competitors included students who qualified for finals last year, so these rankings are a significant accomplishment.

We then moved on to supplemental events, competing in the area of poetry, where students have to be ranked third place or higher to move on. Elliot missed it by a hair. In his three rounds he placed, first, fourth, and second, missing the required rank by just one.

The team is immensely grateful for the support from the school and community. Without your donations and goodwill, not only would we not have competed so well but we wouldn’t have been able to attend in the first place. Thank you so much!