AVHS Section Tournament Results

Please congratulate the following students who have advanced to the 2016 MSHSL State Tournament:

In Duo Interpretation:
1st place - Claire Doty & Lauren Troldahl
2nd place - Cassandra Edlund & Trevor Taylor

In Dramatic Interpretation:
1st place - Felipe Escudero
2nd place - Julie Manning

In Humorous Interpretation:
1st place - Stephanie Kahle
3rd place - Brynn Berg

In Informative Speaking:
1st place - Sarah Grambo
3rd place - Trinity Ek

In Original Oratory:
1st place - Yassin Abasher
2nd place - Jane Michaelson
3rd place - Moti Begna

In Poetry:
1st place - Malaina Carver
2nd place - Marlena Santos

In Great Speeches:
2nd place - Amanda Jackson
3rd place - Kate Brause

In Extemp Speaking:
2nd place - Kenan Anderson

In Serious Prose:
3rd place - Arianna Rotty

In Creative Expression:
3rd place - Linnea Prehn

In Extemp Reading:
3rd place - Teja Lawrence

Congratulations again to these students! Please wish the AVHS Speech Team the best of luck at the MSHSL State Speech Tournament next Saturday, April 16th, hosted at Lakeville North High School.


To see the incredible talents of these students and many more, we encourage all staff members to attend ELOQUENCE this Saturday, April 9th, at 7:30pm in the AVHS Theatre! Tickets are $7.00 for adults, $5.00 for students, AVHS staff get in free!

All proceeds will go to the AVHS Speech Team as we prepare for our post-season and national tournaments.

AVHS Qualifies Students to NSDA Grand National Tournament

On March 11th and 12th, the Apple Valley Speech Team competed at the Central Minnesota NSDA District Tournament to qualify students to the National Speech and Debate Association National Tournament this summer in Salt Lake City, Utah. AVHS took 22 students to the competition for preliminary rounds on Friday. AVHS had the most students break into elimination rounds with 17 of those students advancing to the semi-final round and 15 of them advancing to the final round of competition at the district tournament! At the end of the tournament on Saturday, AVHS qualified the most students out of all schools competing at the district tournament! 12 AVHS students have qualified to the NSDA National Tournament by placing in the top three of his or her event. They join the 3 AVHS Debate team students who have already qualified for the national tournament back in December. 

 

AVHS Speech and Debate team students qualifying for the NSDA National Tournament are:

In Original Oratory: 

1st place - Marlena Santos

2nd place - Yassin Abasher

3rd place - Jane Michaelson

In Duo Interpretation:

1st place - Cassandra Edlund & Trevor Taylor

2nd place - Stephanie Kahle & Moti Begna

AUTO QUALIFIERS - Claire Doty & Lauren

Troldahl (based on their semi-final finish last year at nationals)

In Dramatic Interpretation:

3rd place - Felipe Escudero

In Informative Speaking:

1st place - Sarah Grambo

2nd place - Trinity Ek

NOTE: Cassandra Edlund took 1st place in Program Oral Interpretation (POI) and Stephanie Kahle took 2nd place in Humorous Interpretation at the competition. Since they technically "double qualified" for nationals, they will be going to nationals in Duo Interpretation. 

In Lincoln Douglas Debate: (already qualified for nationals from the competition in December)

1st place - Sophie Ober

2nd place - John Boals

3rd place - Claire Hoffa

NOTE: Apple Valley High School won the District Debate sweepstakes plaque back in December, placing 1st out of all teams competing at the Central MN District Debate Qualifying Tournament. AVHS also won the District Speech sweepstakes plaque this weekend, placing first out of all teams competing at the Central MN District Speech Qualifying Tournament. As a result, AVHS won the overall combined Speech and Debate District Sweepstakes Award based on the results from all the district tournaments in Speech, Debate, and Congress!

MSHSL State Debate Success for AVHS

Congratulations to our Debate team on an impressive finish to the season. Both of our LD entries advanced to elimination rounds! Senior Claire Hoffa advanced to the quarter final round in Lincoln Douglas at the 2016 MSHSL State Debate Tournament. Teammate Sophie Ober advanced to the semi final round in Lincoln Douglas, finishing in the top 4 at the State Tournament! Way to go!

AVHS Named MDTA Challenge Cup Winner for LD Debate

For the second year in a row, the Apple Valley Debate team is awarded the MDTA (Minnesota Debate Teacher's Association) Challenge Cup for excellence in Lincoln Douglas Debate. This is a traveling trophy that recognizes exceptional performance by a team in each of the debate categories. Points are accumulated by the total success of individual members throughout the debate season.  

Senior Sophie Ober Names All-State Debater

In addition, the MDTA announced the All-State Debate awards to the top eight individuals in each debate category. With thousands of students participating in debate statewide, the MDTA All-State Debate awards represents a highly select group of individuals across the state. Congratulations to senior Sophie Ober who was named as one of the top 8 Lincoln Douglas debaters in the state of Minnesota and received the prestigious MDTA All-State Debate award.

AVHS Speech Team Shines in Florida

Apple Valley Speech Team one of the top finishers at the 2016 Sunvitational Speech Tournament on January 9th and 10th in Fort Lauderdale, Florida! AVHS had 11 students compete at this national circuit tournament that represented 91 high schools from 20 states with over 1,200 entries. After competing in five preliminary rounds, 12 entries from AVHS broke into quarter finals and then 8 of those entries advanced to semi finals. We especially want to commend our four entries that broke to the final rounds of competition: seniors Lauren Troldahl places 3rd in Dramatic Interpretation and Cassandra Edlund places 2nd in Dramatic Interpretation, seniors Stephanie Kahle and Moti Begna place 2nd in Duo Interpretation, and Cassandra Edlund also took 1st place in Program Oral Interpretation.

Senior Cassandra Edlund "LIGHTS" Up the Competition

Special recognition should be given to Cassandra Edlund's impressive tournament. She competed in 23 rounds of competition over two days! She finished 7th in Duo Interpretation, 2nd in Dramatic Interpretation, and 1st in Program Oral Interpretation. This marks Edlund's third straight championship in POI at a nationally recognized tournament. Congratulations to the AVHS Speech team! 

NSDA Debate Qualifiers & The Dowling Paradigm

The AVHS Forensics program has a big weekend with its debate team competing for a trip to nationals and the speech team traveling to Des Moines for a weekend tournament.  Both events turned out to be quite successful.

In debate, AVHS has three student who qualified for the 2016 NSDA Grand National Tournament in Salt Lake City, Utah.  These students include seniors Sophia Ober and Claire Hoffa (who will be making her third trip to nationals, and junior John Boals. 

Claire Hoffa, John Boals and Sophia Ober

In speech, AVHS won the sweepstakes of the Dowling Paradigm in Des Moines Iowa.  Twenty-three students attended, of which seventeen of them advanced to semi finals, twelve to finals and four were named champion.  See detailed results below.

1st Place POI Cassie Edlund
1st Place Duo Lauren Trodahl and Clary Doty
1st Place Humorous Stephanie Kahle
1st Place Original Oratory Jane Michaelson
2nd Place Drama Cassie Edlund
2nd Place Prose Annabel Higgin-Houser
3rd Place Duo Stephanie Kahle and Moti Begna
3rd Place Original Oratory Moti Begna
4th Place POI Annebel Higgin-Houser
4th Place Duo Cassie Edlund and Trevor Taylor
5th Place Original Oratory Reese Johnson
5th Place Duo Felipe Escudero and Julie Manning

Semi Finalists included the following students:
Yassin Abasher
Arianna Rotty
Lauren Trodahl
Claire Doty
Julie Manning

AVHS JV / Novice State Debate

Congratulations to the AVHS Novice and JV Debate team on another banner finish at this year's MDTA JV/Novice State Tournament held this past weekend at Eagan High School on Dec. 4th & 5th. Apple Valley finished in 2nd place as a team! This is our best finish in several years at this tournament. Sophomores Kenan Anderson and Trinity Ek both won their semi-final rounds in JV Lincoln Douglas Debate, advancing them to the final round crowning both teammates State Champions in JV Lincoln Douglas Debate! Sophomore Cori Roberts finished as a quarter finalist and Ritvik Taran finished as an octa finalist in the JV division. Top speakers in JV LD were Trinity Ek placing 3rd, Kenan Anderson placing 4th, and Cori Roberts placing 10th. Freshman Serena Abraham also finished at the top in her division. Serena finished as the Novice State Champion in Lincoln Douglas Debate. Sophomore Hanna Clark finished as a quarter finalist in Novice LD as well. Top speakers in Novice LD was Hanna Clark placing 11th. In Public Forum, India Smith and partner Vanessa Weber finished as octa finalists and Abigail Brachio and Brandon Schellhaass finished as quarter finalists. Top speakers in Public Forum were Brandon Schellhaass placing 11th and Abigail Brachio placing 2nd in the Novice division as well as Zachary Hayes placing 10th in the JV division. Congratulations on an amazing finish to the JV/Novice Debate season!

Congratulations to the Apple Valley Speech and Debate Team at the 2015 Glenbrooks Tournament in Illinois!

Congratulations to the AVHS Speech and Debate team at Glenbrooks! 10 Speech entries and 2 Debate entries broke into elimination rounds. Quarter Finalists were: Moti Begna in Original Oratory and Julia Scovil in Program Oral Interpretation. Semi Finalists were: Claire Doty & Lauren Troldahl in Duo Interpretation as well as Felipe Escudero, Arianna Rotty, and Lauren Troldahl in Drama. Double-Octa Finalist in JV Lincoln Douglas Debate was Trinity Ek. Quarter Finalist in JV Lincoln Douglas Debate was Kenan Anderson

Individual Finalists were:

1st place in Program Oral Interpretation - Cassie Edlund

2nd place in Original Oratory - Jane Michaelson

5th place in Duo Interpretation - Stephanie Kahle & Moti Begna

6th place in Dramatic Interpretation - Cassie Edlund

AVHS Speech Team takes home 3rd place as a team!