AVHS Travels to Salt Lake for NSDA 2016

What a week! Apple Valley's national success was continued at the NSDA National Tournament in Salt Lake City! We brought 15 students, and 13 made it to elimination rounds!

Results:

Sophie finished as a double octafinalist in LD,

Claire and Lauren finished as octafinalists in Duo,

In Oratory, Yassin, Jane and Marlena all finished as quarterfinalists,

Felipe finished as a quarterfinalist in DI, and Moti and Stephanie's Duo finished in quarterfinals!

Trinity finished in 12th place in the nation in Informative!

Cassie and Trevor's duo finished 5th in nation!

Sarah is the first ever national champion in informative!!

The Apple Valley Speech and Debate Team also won a School of Outstanding Distinction award, given to the top 10 speech & debate teams overall! This means that the team has won the TOP award at all three national speech tournaments for the SECOND year in a row!

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AVHS Named Team of Excellence at NCFLs

The Apple Valley Speech Team was named as Team of Excellence (Top 5 in the nation) at the NCFL Grand National Tournament over the Memorial Day Weekend in Sacramento, CA. The tournament included over 500 schools and 2,000 students from around the country. AVHS took thirteen entries to the tournament and advanced eleven of those entries to the Top 48! Three of those entries placed in the Top 6 in the country, one of which (the Duo of Moti Begna and Stephanie Kahle) was named the National Champions. Here are some of the other highlights of the weekend.

Julie Manning was an octo finalist.
Cassie Edlund, Trevor Taylor, Ari Rotty, Yassin Abasher, and Jane Michaelson were all quarter finalists.
The Duos of Claire Doty and Lauren Troldahl along with Teja Lawrence and Annabel Higgin-Houser were semi-finalists.
Mailana Carver placed fifth in the nation in Oral Interpretation.
Felipe Escuedro placed fourth in the nation in Dramatic Performance.
And Moti Begna and Stephanie Kahle were crowned national champions in Dramatic Duo!

Other participants included Reese Johnson and Halima Badri.

AVHS Wins Big Team Sweeps at NIETOC

This past weekend, AVHS won the big team sweepstakes at the Grand National Tournament for NIETOC, which included some of the nation's most competitive students. Over 100 schools from 40 states converged on Denver for the event.

Here are a few of the highlights.

AVHS took thirteen entries in total. Twelve of those entries made it to the first break, while eight of them made it to semi finals, and five placed in the top six!

Here are a few highlights.

Marlena Santos, national semi finalist in Oratory
Moti Begna and Stephanie Kahle, national semi finalists in Duo
Cassandra Edlund and Trevor Taylor, national semi finalists in Duo
Felipe Escudero, 6th plance finish in Drama
Annabel Higgin-Houser, 5th place in Prose
Stephanie Kahle, 4th place in Humorous
Yassin Abasher, 3rd place in Oratory
Cassandra Edlund, 3rd place in Drama

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.