Five Tyrone Area High School Junior High and High School Speech Team members came home with first-place awards from the annual Winter Speech League Meet at Juniata Valley High School on Thursday, February 15.

The team finished in third place, but all three competing schools were so close in scoring that only .6 of a point separated first from third.

“It’s a bummer to not come in first,” sophomore Reilly Rawlings said, “but we did bring home five individual awards. My speech won the People’s Choice Award.”

In addition to Rawlings, Mia Kubarek won first place for Best Senior High Speech, Jordyn Deck won first place for Best Junior High Poetic Speech, Lily Whited won first place for Best Senior High Serious Speech, and Elise Kubarek won first place for Best Junior High Serious Speech.

The other two participating schools were Juniata Valley and Williamsburg.

With three competitions down and one to go, the Tyrone High School Speech Team is busy preparing for its final event of the year: the annual home Spring Meet at Tyrone Area High School on Thursday, April 18.

“I like home meets,” Maia Kubarek, senior, said. “It’s fun to have our teachers and administrators serve as judges.”

The Speech Team’s season began in October with the Fall Meet at Williamsburg Junior-Senior High School. This year they tied for first with Juniata Valley High School and agreed to let the other team take home the all-school trophy.

“What a great display of sportsmanship,” Michael Funicelli, chemistry teacher said when he heard about the decision from freshman member Elise Kubarek.

Lily Whited, junior, won Tyrone’s Poetry Out Loud competition on Tuesday, December 12 at 6:00 PM and traveled to the Southern Allegheny Museum of the Arts in Ligonier, PA on Saturday, January 27 To compete in the regional competition by reciting three poems from memory.

“I felt accomplished going out and competing in Poetry Out Loud because I never imagined myself taking the opportunity to do it,” Whited said.

Whited joined Speech Team two years ago to help combat her fear of public speaking. Since then she’s grown confident in her speaking abilities. On Wednesday, January 21 she shared her Speech Team journey with a group of interested freshmen.

“It is easy for us all to think that everybody else has it all together while we struggle with our inner turmoils, but when somebody shares their own inner turmoils and how they overcame them, it helps us see how we could take that same pathway out of whatever our issue is,” Suzy Burkert, 9th-grade team leader, and history teacher, said.

Speech Team is open to students in grades 8-12. All TAHS English teachers have information on how to get involved.

“I love Speech Team,” Rawlings said. “When I got involved, it helped with my public speaking, and now I’m just obsessed.”