The Jackson Hole High School speech and debate team began its competitive season with a first-place finish Friday and Saturday at the Red Devil Invitational in Evanston.

The Jackson team, under the coaching of Mark Houser, Matt Daly and Jennifer Stadum, brought 25 of its 42 members to the meet. Jackson saw 16 students advance to final rounds.

“With a number of the team absent from this tournament due to other activity conflicts,” Houser said, “we are very pleased with our overall showing, as well as the number of individual successes from those students who did travel. We have many students finishing other activities and look forward to traveling to Green River next week with a full roster.”

The Evanston tournament separates novice and varsity students to give novices an early season chance to compete only against other students at a similar level of familiarity and preparedness. Unlike many high-school activities, all novice competitors shift to varsity in January. The format also gives varsity team members the opportunity to mentor their new teammates in a tournament setting.

Jackson’s novice competitors garnered 24 of the team’s 60 first-place points.

Sophomore Cheyenne Holton finished third in drama with his interpretation of Erich Remarque’s “All’s Quiet on the Western Front.” Freshman Miles Yazzolino also secured a third place in poetry, using “The Lord of the Rings” by J.R.R. Tolkien. Senior Alicia McShad advanced to two final rounds, finishing fifth in poetry with her Rudyard Kipling poems and sixth in humor, using “Marked P.C.” by Kristin Cast.

Novice freshman Lincoln-Douglas debaters Kyle Helm and Randy Elledge tied for third, both advancing through preliminary rounds undefeated. They argued the resolution that “it is morally permissible to kill one innocent person to save the lives of more innocent people.”

Rounding out the top novice slots were freshman Sally Morton and sophomore Lee Bontecou, who tied for fourth in student congress. The varsity congress competitors took four of the top nine slots, led by junior Brandon Kapelow, reaching third place with a resolution calling for a repeal of the Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act. Junior Christie Teske finished fourth in congress with her bill calling for the legalization of physician-assisted suicide. Senior team captain Tommie Ethington finished sixth, and junior Oliver O’Connor finished ninth in student congress.

Jackson’s varsity interpretation squad also performed well in Evanston, led by the second-place finish of the duet team of Jade Holston-Green and Aly Harmon, competing with “Surprise” by E. Chadima. Jackson had depth in poetry interpretation, led by senior team captain Avery Nelson, reaching third place by reciting a collection of poems by Molly Kennedy and Ron Koetge. Junior Sam Wittig and senior Amanda Payne — finishing fourth and fifth, respectively — joined Nelson on stage. Wittig uses the poetry of J.K. Rowling, while Payne interprets “Aether” by Allen Ginsberg.

Christie Teske added strong interpretation finishes in drama and poetry, placing third in drama with “A Child Called ‘It’” by David Pelzer and reaching semifinals in poetry.

The team is planning its own invitational tournament Feb. 13-14. For the home tournament, the speech team is needs about 300 volunteers to judge for about an hour and a half each. Judging guidelines will be provided and several practice judging sessions will be offered. Experience judging is not necessary. To volunteer anytime from 3 to 9 p.m. on Friday or from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday, call Houser at 733-8349, or e-mail safeschools@Wyoming.com.