Mid-Prairie High School will advance 11 students and Highland will send four to the state individual speech contest after receiving Division 1 ratings for their district performances on Saturday.

Both schools hired a certified Iowa High School Speech Association (IHSSA) judge to come to their school and rate the performances. Mid-Prairie students performed in 17 categories with every performance earning a Division 1 rating. Advancing to state are Diego Ayala and Gavin Frascht for spontaneous speaking, Haydon Bailey for reviewing and solo acting, Olivia Caskey and Kyra Helmuth for solo musical theatre and solo acting, Avery Frede for solo improvisation and radio news broadcasting, Isadora Goode and Avery Slaubaugh for interpretive reading prose, Emily Marner for solo musical theatre and solo improvisation, Elizabeth Meader for storytelling and interpretive reading prose, and Jennifer Sanchez for interpretive reading poetry.

Highland students received Division 1 ratings in four of their seven performances including Charlie Aicher and Isaac Black for expository address, Shantall Avendano for solo musical theatre, and Brendan Schnoebelen for radio news.

State contests are scheduled to be held between March 10th and 19th, and both schools will again bring in hired judges to rate their performances on March 13th. Students receiving a state Division 1 rating will be eligible to be nominated for the All-State Festival, which will not be held this year due to COVID-19.

*pictured below, Highland individual speech performers: ((l-r) Charlie Aicher, Shantall Avendano, Emma Nicola, Issac Black, Kadin Jepson, and Brendan Schnoebelen