Senior Tyler Fabbri took top honors at the Lafayette Jefferson Speech Invitational this past weekend, winning the individual speaker award for his placement in three different events. Fabbri placed first in both domestic extemporaneous speaking and impromptu speaking and third in original oratory. His performance helped the team to a fourth place finish out of the 25 schools and more than 500 entries competing in the all varsity invitational.

Other individual events champions included senior Adam Potrzebowski in international extemporaneous and Dakota McCoy (11) in broadcasting. McCoy also placed eighth, along with his partner Robert Conrick (11), in improvisational duo, and tenth in impromptu. Potrzebowski also placed ninth in original oratory. Conrick also took third place in original performance.

The team finished with 102 points behind tournament champion, Fishers, which had 155 points. Culver Academies finished in second with 148 points, and North Central was third with 121 points. Evansville Reitz finished out the top five with 58 points.

Senior Matt Keeley also had a strong showing, placing second in drama, third in poetry, and tenth in memorized duo, along with his partner Leah Dujmovich (11). Dujmovich, who also placed in three events, finished fourth in drama and fourth in declamation. She was followed by teammate Conor Livingston (11), who was tenth in declamation.

Sophomore Austin Martinson finished fourth in prose interpretation and fellow sophomore Jake Pullins took fifth in humorous interpretation. Finally, sophomore Andrew Hogan placed sixth in original performance.

“We were very pleased with our team’s performance today; given that we were short a number of people due to Northeast District debate competition and homecoming. The team we had did well, particularly in the public address events,” said coach Bob Kelly.

Coaches Kelly and Doug Pishkur, along with assistants Kayla Fleming and Halle Orgel were helped with judging duties by former team members and parents. Judging for the team were former students Molly Deuberry, Leslie Chamberlain and Erika Carstens. Parent Beth Ingram also joined the team.

Posted 2/2/2010