Pinkston Earns Fourth at State Speech!
By: Brianne Kuhr, a freshman at Leigh High School
On Friday, March 18, Gabriel Pinkston headed to Kearney High School to compete in the Class D1 State Speech Championship. Two weeks before, on March 4th, Pinkston placed first in the Humorous Prose category at the District D1-2 Humphrey meet, earning her way to state. She then performed her speech to the entire high school before leaving for state.
At state, Pinkston competed in three preliminary rounds, and qualified for the finals round of six before eventually earning fourth place.
Beating her out was Megan Amos of Stapleton, who placed first in the Humorous Prose category. Cole Story of Wausa finished second, and Kaden Polt of Osmond placed third in front of Pinkston.
Pinkston stated, "Having the chance to perform at State Speech was a huge honor. I couldn't believe that I was among such talented competition. I am content to know that, beyond the people who supported me and the school I represented, I made myself proud."
Head coach Maddie Gall said, “State speech was such a great day! Gabriel performed 'Fairytale Courtroom' four times on Friday and kept getting better each time! Gabriel has so much to be proud of with a 4th place finish!”
Gabriel finishing fourth in her category meant that Leigh as a Top 15 Team in Class D-1!
In the team competition, Wausa won the Class D-1 championship, and Humphrey High took home runner-up.