The speech half of the speech and debate team opened its season with a novice only tournament held at Munster High School.

Five schools and more than 75 students attended the tournament, designed to help novices "learn the ropes" before the regular season gets under way.

The tournament was run and judged by varsity students from the five schools attending.

Chesterton had nine novice entries and took ten varsity students to help run and judge the tournament.

There were no team awards but the top eight students in each of the 11 events received recognition. The novice group was led by junior Max Brown who was the tournament champion in broadcasting. Brown was followed by teammates Sam Gordon (9) in third, Evan Gill (11) in fourth, and Alex Driskill (11) in fifth.

In declamation freshman Grant Schuster placed fourth, and in humor junior Justyn Lantz was fifth.

Judging and tabbing for Chesterton were seniors Aliyah Caraballo, Rachel Kidder, Sharon Coleman, and Maddie Mottinger. Also judging were juniors Danny Vincent, Layla Mooradian, Jami Ritchea, Mikaela Meyer, and sophomores Matt Murfitt and Lauren Hogan.

"This is always a good learning experience for both our novice and varsity students. It's a good way to start the year," said Coach Bob Kelly.