Rock Falls speech team has two 1st-place winners at IHSA regional

FREEPORT — Rock Falls High School’s speech team won two event categories and placed fifth in the team sweepstakes during the Illinois High School Association regional on Saturday at Freeport High School.

Freeport defended its regional title of last year by winning the team sweepstakes with 62 points.

Byron was second at 61, Riverdale third at 49, Pearl City fourth at 39 and Rock Falls was fifth at 32.

Entrants that placed in the top four advance to the sectional, which will be Saturday, Feb. 11 at DeKalb High School.

The top three individuals at sectional advance to state, which will be Feb. 17-18 at Peoria Civic Center.

Rock Falls’s winners were both in duets.

In dramatic duet acting, junior Remington Collins and sophomore Addison Watts won with “Good Enough” against three other competitors.

In humorous duet acting, Collins was paired with junior Grace Boostrom and won with “Ditzies” in a field of six competitors.

Rock Falls’ two duets entered the competition having won in the same categories during the River Ridge Class A Tournament on Jan. 7 and the Galena virtual tournament on Jan. 14.

In other regional results for Rock Falls, sophomore Hannah Johnson was third with her poetry reading of “To This Day” while senior Makenzi Parks was third with a prose reading of “The Tortoise and the Hare.” Elizabeth Buikema was fourth in impromptu speaking while Savanna Wood-Kendrick was fourth in radio speaking.

Radio speaking, in fact, had a three-way tie for first between Byron’s Shannon McHale, Galena’s Emma Blaum, and Riverdale’s Izzy Slone.

Sterling had one competitor qualify for sectional in two events: Junior Michelle Henderson-Bellows took fourth with a dramatic interpretation of “Memories of Him” and a fourth in prose reading with “Memories of an Imaginary Friend.”

Byron had five winners. In addition to the first in radio, McHale won in impromptu speaking, while Alaina Haas took firsts in informative speaking and in prose reading and Mike Rock was first in original comedy.

Freeport had four winners: Mya Ortiz in dramatic interpretation, Rachel Sdao in humorous interpretation, Max Krzeminski in original oratory and AJ Evon in special occasion speaking.

Pearl City had three winners: Natalie Greene in extemporaneous speaking, Caylie Schubert in poetry reading and its group rendition of “The Kingdom of Academia” for a performance in the round.

In addition to radio, Galena’s Blaum also took a fist in oratorical declamation.

The other feeder regionals for the DeKalb sectional were in Rochelle and Cary-Grove.

Rochelle won its own regional sweepstakes with 68 points, ahead of DeKalb at 62 and Yorkville at 46. Rochelle won six event categories, headed by dramatic duet winners Mikayla Preston and Paul Swartz. Cary-Grove won its regional sweepstakes with 63 points while Bartlett was second at 59. Cary-Grove won for performance in the round and in three other categories.

Competitive cheer

The competitive cheerleading state finals were Saturday at Grossinger Motors Arena in Bloomington.

Johnsburg had a score of 93.83, finishing ahead of Columbia at 93.35, and repeated as small team state champion.

Oak Forest, which finished second last year, won the medium team state title with a score of 97.67.

Frankfort Lincoln-Way East won the large team state title with a score of 98.13.

Buffalo Grove won the co-ed title with a score of 94.57, slightly ahead of Huntley at 94.13.

Coming up

Chess state finals will be Friday and Saturday, Feb. 10-11, at the Peoria Civic Center. Sterling qualified by taking second in its sectional.

Speech individual event sectionals will be Saturday, Feb. 11. State finals will be Friday and Saturday, Feb. 17-18 at the Peoria Civic Center.

Music solo and ensemble contests will be Saturday, March 4. Organizational music contests will be Friday and Saturday, April 14-15.

Scholastic bowl regionals will be March 6, sectionals will be March 11 and state will be state will be March 18.

Drama sectionals will be March 17-18 and state will be March 24-25.