Tiger forensic teams prevail despite weather

Week two of the young forensics season found the Tigers in a unique situation as they traveled in three directions, despite not having a week of in-class preparation. Coach Brian Weilert stated that he knew the teams were not going to be as prepared as they could be, but was confident that many of them had put in the work on their own during the "snow-week".

At Desoto, the team had to make some last-minute adjustments as a couple of drops due to illness and a rare no-show really put the team scrambling to fill all events. Weilert commented that what makes Fort Scott such a solid team is everyone's willingness to pick up the slack. Reed Ramsey drug out his debate info to try and create an original oration on the bus, Mark Garner, a freshman, grabbed a Prose from the class and worked on the bus ride up as well. Others jumped into improvised duet acting for the first time. As a result of their efforts and the rest of the team's performances, Fort Scott came away with a second-place sweepstakes finish out the 17 schools in attendence, just six points from the title. Placing for the team were: Reed Ramsey (Duet 1st), Glenn Gaeke (Duet 1st, Poetry 5th), Ashley Allen (Original Oration 1st), Katelyn Torres (Duet 2nd, Informative 2nd), Tony Jackson (Duet 2nd), and Jeff Durbin (Serious Solo Action 1st).

The other two groups were in action at Iola and Saint Thomas Aquinas. The group at Iola put seven into finals to help the Tigers earn a third place team award. Here, too, many of the students jumped in to fill spots that were vacated due to illness and other factors. Daniel Lyon picked up a third event, grabbing a Prose selection before heading out the door along with teammate Megan Midkiff who jumped into poetry though she was not scheduled to compete in that event. These two were rewarded for their efforts, as Daniel placed in his other two events, winning Extemp and finishing thirdrd in Informative speaking. Megan topped that performance by making finals in all three of her events, ending in 2nd in Humorous Solo Acting, 3rd in Poetry, and 5th in Extemp. Ackland Milton, maintained his winning ways for two weeks in a row by finishing in the top-two in prose (1st) and poetry (2nd) again. The final contribution was made by Baker Weilert who earned the poetry title. The Saint Thomas Aquinas group delved into a solid Kansas City tournament. The team still finished a respectable sixth putting four events into finals. The Duets had a good day as Elizabeth Booth/ Ben Sweyko, Josh Woolsey/ Brett Allen, and Austin Bailey/ Samantha Carr all made finals. The other finalist was Allison Piatt who came out of group of nearly 40 other competitors to earn a medal.

Weilert summed it up, "Overall, this was by far not our best weekend of performance, but that was overshadowed by the efforts of a select few who went above and beyond. The depth of our team was on display as we were spread pretty thin this weekend due to a lot of issues, but still were competitive at three tournaments. Again, we are nowhere near where we need to be, but hopefully we can correct that in the coming weeks."