Three medal at state speech meet

Three Ely seniors returned home from the state high school speech meet as medalists.Joe Manlove, Raychal Zupancich and Brian Kess all were among the top-six speakers in their respective categories at the April 16 State Class A meet at Centennial High School.Manlove had the highest-finish, a third-place performance in Discussion.Zupancich placed fifth in Drama while Kess was sixth in Humorous.All three earned medals a year ago, as well, when Manlove placed fifth in Discussion while Kess and Zupancich teamed up to take second in Dramatic Duo.Manlove stayed in the same category for his senior year, moving up to third in the state.Kess and Zupancich both branched off into individual divisions, and returned to state on their own.The seniors were three of nine Ely participants in the state meet.Others competing, but failing to advance into the finals were Kai Bowen (Great Speeches), Sarah Myers (Informative), Amanda Cowden (Original Oratory), Ashley Harris (Extemporaneous Speaking), Anne Kellerman (Prose) and Jesse Schlosser (Drama).Ely had earlier finished second in the section competition with three team members - Kess, Zupancich and Bowen - winning section championships in their respective category.