On Jan. 18 Fluvanna’s forensics team competed at James Madison University for the Shenandoah Valley Forensic League (ShenVaFL) championships. Also known as the ShenVaFL Tournament of Champions, the event gives speech and debate students the opportunity to compete against other qualifying members before they compete in Regionals.

Fluvanna won overall sweeps for the championship and the season. Separately, the speech team won sweeps for the championship and the season, while the debate team won runner-up for the championship.

“I think we had an amazing performance as a team. It was probably one of the best Tournament of Champions I’ve attended in all my years in speech, and I can’t wait to see how we do in the upcoming competitions,” said senior speech team member Tomas Cruz Vega.

The following students placed in the top six for the Championship:

Speech:

1st, Amina Seiden, Original Oratory
1st, Townes Mullinex, Serious Duo
1st, Madison Gifford, Serious Duo
1st, Madison Cavanaugh, Dramatic Interp
1st, Ruby Godlewski, Humorous Interp
2nd, Angela Cumiskey, Dramatic Interp
2nd, Nick Culbertson, Extemp
2nd, Annika Potter, Impromptu
2nd, Jadyn Woolstenhulme, Poetry
2nd, Tomas Cruz Vega, Storytelling
5th, Quinn Hartman, Prose

Debate:

1st, Ryleigh Money, Policy
1st, Madelyn Grant, Policy
3rd, Vanessa Vandevander, Student Congress
4th, Kennedy Yowell, Student Congress
5th, Aryann Baskfield, Public Forum
5th, Jay Bridges, Public Forum

Upcoming competitions for speech and debate are as follows:

Feb. 15 – VHSL Regionals at Salem High School
March 1 – VHSL Super Regionals at Turner Ashby High School
March 29 – VHSL States Salem High School

March 22 – Regionals at Turner Ashby High School
April 12 – Super Regionals Turner Ashby High School
April 25-26 – States at James Madison University