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Irelyn Bearinger and Talya Nilson placed second in duet acting/duo interp at the West Holt junior high speech invitational, Saturday, after losing a tie-breaker by points in the two-round, no-finals tournament. The tournament was judged by high school speakers from West Holt, Chambers/Wheeler Central and Summerland. Gaining judging experience from Summerland were Kyra Nilson and Emily Nordby. The pair placed sixth in a field of 28 in duet acting/duo interpretation at a meet in Wayne, April 17, with their performance of Ditzies by Deborak Karczewski. The piece tells the story of Roxy and Trixy, who are full of fun, but short on common sense. The "besties for the resties" get more than they bargained for when Trixy teaches Roxy how to drive.

Instructor Julie Harley said junior high speech gives students a taste of what to expect in the world of high school forensics. It differs from high school speech in that scripts are allowed in duet/duo interp. The Summerland team did not use scripts so that they could act out the entire scene. Junior high students may compete in public speaking events, declamation, where they present up to 10 minutes of a famous speech, poetry, interpretation, extemporaneous speaking and oral interpretation of drama/readers' theater. "Junior high speech gives students the opportunity to get up in front of a room and speak in front of an audience, which could take away the novice jitters next year," Harley said.