The LT Speech team hosted its first ever invitational tournament on Jan 9, in coordination with Argo High School. Last year, the same meet was hosted at Argo, but LT was up to the task to host this year.

“We wanted to have it on our own at LT last year, but we couldn’t due to the construction in the cafeteria and the Reber,” Speech Team coach Kirsten Manthei said. “We decided to join forces with Argo since we know the coaches there.”

Twenty-seven teams competed in the tournament, and LT managed to defeat all of them and win first place.

“We did not expect to do as well as we did, because 27 schools is considered a pretty huge tournament,” Manthei said.

The team won 34 different individual awards, the most they have won at a single meet this year.

“The whole team did an incredible job, and we are very proud of how we performed and the success of our first tournament,” Emily Bielski ‘16 said.

Bielski, who has been on the team for two years and was made a captain this year, said that the tournament ran very smoothly for LT’s first time hosting.

“The most rewarding part was interacting with all the other schools and seeing how they enjoyed their experience at our tournament,” Bielski said. “We got many compliments on how clean and well-run the tournament was.”

Bielski and Manthei both hope that an LT invitational meet will become a yearly tradition for speech team.

“We hope next year is as great as an experience as this year, and that many schools continue to enjoy the experience,” Bielski said.