HHS Speech team members named top 25.

Three Harrisburg High School speech team members are having a great week. Each of them were named within the top 25 of their regular season, placing within their perspective categories.

Andrew Jefferies, senior, who has been with the speech team since his freshman year, his categories are dramatic interpretation and humorous interpretation.

"Making connections with other students and performers across the state of Illinois," said Jefferies, when asked about his favorite part of speech. "It is great to meet people other than those I am use to here."

Micaylen Wolf, junior, has also been with the speech team since her freshman year, she performs in informative speaking and humorous duet acting.

Wolf's favorite part of competitive speech is "Competing, I put a lot of work into my speech and it was really cool to see it come together."

Gracie Alexander is a senior but didn't start with the speech team until her sophomore year. She competes in prose and humorous duet.

"I get really, really competitive," said Alexander. "But I have made some of my best friends on speech team."

The three placed in the top 25 out of more than 500 kids from 21 schools as far north as Chatham. In order to place the team members have to place in the finals at each event, a total of five different tournament meets.

The team as a whole received third over all in the final tournament of their regular season which took place at Belleville west.

This Thursday at 6:30 p.m. the speech team will be kicking off their state series with a performance night that is open to the public, in Bonnell Gym.

"This (the performance night) is a fun way to show parents and peers what the speech team is all about," Tina Mondio, Speech Team coach, said.