Algona High Speech competes at Forest City Indian Invitational.

The Algona Speech Team started their speech season with a Sweepstakes trophy win on Saturday. The Bulldogs traveled to the Indian Speech Invitational in Forest City to compete in both large group and individual categories. "This is a practice contest to get us ready for District Large Group," said coach Jessica Laaveg, "I was excited to see our students perform so well--especially the seniors, who are showing great leadership." The Bulldogs competed in the group categories of Choral Reading, Readers' Theatre, Ensemble Acting, and Group Improvisation; they also competed in the individual categories of Acting, Storytelling, Prose Interpretation, Poetry Interpretation, Literary Program, and Individual Improvisation. Out of 68 total performances, the Bulldogs earned 60 Division I (Excellent) ratings and eight Division II (Good) ratings. The Bulldogs' Choral Readers and Readers' Theatre groups took first place out of twelve teams, and the group improvisation team of Andy Behkendorf, Collin Fett, and Alex Shockley also received first place honors. Earning first place in individual categories were Neil Moe in improvisation, Patrick Gerhardt in Literary Program, Tory Metzger in Prose Interpretation, and Caleb Fortune in Storytelling. Algona High School also earned numerous second, third, and fourth-places. This is the fifth straight team sweepstakes trophy win for the Algona Speech team. Their next contest is District Large Group Contest in Spencer on January 19th.