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Speech meets divide schools into size based on their number of participants. Paynesville took first place in the middle category followed by Little Falls in second and Buffalo Lake-Hector in third.

Junior Caitlin Lien (at right) took first place in informative speech to lead the Paynesville team.

Paynesville had four finalists, including Lien. Senior Lisa Lenzmeier took third in original oratory, senior captain Amanda Kern was fourth in extemporaneous reading, and junior Lauren Vaske was third in great speeches.

Also earning team points for Paynesville were ninth grader Hailey Bundy (discussion), junior Courtney Colbert (drama), ninth grader Katrina Daby (prose), eighth grader Ralph Daby (storytelling), ninth grader Natasha Fangmeier (extemporaneous reading), senior captain Troy Gerding (humorous speech), ninth grader Kim Kulzer (storytelling), eighth grader Karla Leitzman (storytelling), and sophomore Peder Thompson (drama).

Next week, the speech team will compete at subsections, hosted by ACGC High School in Grove City, on Tuesday, March 29. The top six competitors in each event will advance from subsections to sections.