I took Thursday and Friday off of work for the National Individual Events Tournament of Champions (NIETOC) aka Speech Nationals! I ended up having two of my qualifiers drop out last second (which was a huge headache), but we made the best of it with two freshman, a junior, and a senior representing Mounds View Speech! We took a coach bus with 5 other teams (the party bus) down to Kansas City!
There were four rounds in two separate flights, so both Friday and Saturday were full days of competition! Hadley & Graham competed in Duet Acting, Lennox competed in Original Oratory, and Nandana competed in Informative.
Mounds View and Irondale are sister schools (as far as we're concerned), so I was happy to spend the weekend with their whole coaching staff (including my Speech bff Alex Gray).
Hadley & Graham broke into Octafinals! That means they're in the top 60 in the country! I'm so thankful I got to watch them perform.
Alex Gray and I continued the tradition we started last year of going out for beer on Saturday night. We went to a tiny strip mall bar with the LOUDEST music possible. Alex Gray shocked and surprised all by knowing the words to many a rap song.
Sunday was the awards ceremony, and even though Hadley & Graham didn't break into Quarterfinals (top 30), they still got to walk the Nationals stage and accept an award.
An overall great trip and a great end to the 24/25 Speech season. Go Mustangs!