night’s Council meeting.
Salem City Council honored Salem High School state championship teams in speech, debate and an individual diver at Monday night’s Council meeting.
High school debaters dominated Class 4 with a 32-8 victory over second place Dominion in the state championship held in April at James Madison University. Each team member and Coach Mark Ingerson received a copy of the resolution passed by Council May 12, along with a championship lapel pin.
The Speech Team, formerly known as Forensics, won its 19th straight Speech-Forensics championship in March. The win set the state’s all-time record for the most team championships in Virginia High School League history for any academic or athletic team.
Thirteen students placed in the top three, Council’s resolution noted, with five state titles that accounted for five state titles out of 10 events.
Senior Claire Rawlins won her second straight state championship in Impromptu Speaking; Charlie Bain won the state championship in Serious Dramatic; Lacey Stratton and Bella Poarch won the state title in Humorous Duo, Rosalie Botos won the state championship in Prose Interpretation.
Also, Hall Blackwood was runner-up in Storytelling, Rebekah Steinweg was runner-up in Extemporaneous Storytelling, Parneet Gill was runner-up in Original Oratory, Tara Farrokhpoor was runner-up in Serious Dramatic, Noah Lovern was runner-up in Humorous Interpretation, Connor Smythers and Colton Easter finished third in Serious Duo, Brenasha Devlin finished third in prose interpretation, Ariana Turner was third in Humorous Interpretation, Caden Smythers was third in Storytelling.
Also, Aly Ory and Zippy Elliott competed in Humorous Duo, Tori Iverson and Lori Lowry competed in Serious Duo. Kaelyn Henzey was team manager.
It was Coach Ingerson’s 20th state championship as the Spartans Head Coach in Debate. Team Captain Claire Rawlins made history as SHS’s first Lincoln-Douglas State Champion; UV Singh and Grayson Smith for the Public Forum Debate state title; Dylan Hancock State Championship in Congressional Debate; and students Rebekah Steinweg, Luke Stovall, Kody Hinnant, Abby Jones, Charlie Bain, Nesa Garcia-Perez, Leah Johnson and Ashley Toapanta.
Council also honored Salem High School State Diving Champion Avery Mangus Monday night. It was Mangus’ second year in competitive diving. The competition was held in Richmond at St. Catherine’s School in March. She scored 298.65 points in her 11 total dives.
Mangus also won the Regional Diving title as a junior and finished fifth this season. She practiced regularly at the Christiansburg Aquatic Center. Her coach was Christen King.
