The Salem Speech team set a new VHSL record on Saturday, March 29, by winning its 19th straight state Speech-Forensics championships. All 19 titles have been won consecutively. Before this year's competition, Salem was tied with Madison County at 18. Madison won 18 titles, including 9 in a row, in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Salem won on its home turf at Salem High School with a dominating 39-11 victory over region rival E.C. Glass in Class 4. Along with the team championship, senior Claire Rawlins won the 100th individual state championship in school history, winning back-to-back championships in Impromptu Speaking. Rawlins also won a state championship last year in Policy Debate at the VHSL Debate State Championships.
Along with Claire, leading Salem to victory were:
- State Champion Serious Dramatic, Charlie Bain (12th)
- State Champions Humorous Duo, Lacey Stratton (11th) and Bella Poarch (11th)
- State Champion Prose Rosalie Botos (9th)
- Runner-up Storytelling, Hall Blackwood (12th)
- Runner-up Extemporaneous Speaking, Rebekah Steinweg (12th)
- Runner-up Original Oratory, Parneet Gill (11th)
- Runner-up Serious Dramatic, Tara Farrokhpoor (9th)
- Runner-up Humorous, Noah Lovern (12th)
- 3rd place Serious Duo, Connor Smythers (12th) and Colton Easter (12th)
- 3rd place Prose, Brenasha Devlin (11th)
- 3rd place Ariana Turner (11th)
- 3rd place Storytelling, Caden Smythers (8th)
Salem now has won 103 individual state championships in Speech-Forensics.
Aly Ory (9th) and Zippy Elliott (9th) competed in Humorous Duo and Tori Iverson (8th) and Lori Lowry (9th) competed in Serious Duo. Kaelyn Henzey (12th) is the team's manager and did an outstanding job making signage all over the building to help judges and competitors to find their rooms easily. Kaelyn also led a crew of volunteers (Harper Rocovich, Dylan Hancock, Luke Stovall, Kody Hinnant, and Jack Dixon) who served as official event photographers for the event. #GoSpartans