KEARNEY — The Grand Island Central Catholic Speech Team won the NSAA Class C1 State Championship
Thursday, March 27.
With 18 qualifying team members competing in 15 event entries at State, the group secured seven entries
in the final round.
Quinn Lee finished 2nd place in Extemporaneous, followed by 3rd place in Persuasive. Evie Peterson
claimed 3rd place in Humorous Prose and 5th place in Serious Prose. George Pilsl took the 3rd place
medal in Entertainment. Briana Ezewudo and Thomas Armstrong both earned 5th place medals in Poetry
and Informative, respectively.
By winning medals in these events, the team accumulated 102 points to earn the championship. This is the
first time in school history that Grand Island Central Catholic has won State Speech. Prior to this year, the
schools’ highest team finish was 4th place in 2024.
“Our coaching staff and students worked so hard this year, and that hard work has paid off in the biggest
way,” Head Coach Dr Jordan Engle said. “It’s a great victory for GICC Speech, and we hope to continue
our culture of success!”
Additional State entries for GICC included Molly Graybill and Lexi Puncochar (Duet Acting), Jacie Palik
(Entertainment), Grace Johnson (Informative), George Pilsl, JT Rein, Spencer Wiens, Kenley Bogner and
Lydia Henry (Oral Interpretation of Drama), Briana Ezewudo, Catalina Chavez, Emily Ye, Sofia Alba and
Paige Dvorak (Oral Interpretation of Drama), Thomas Armstrong (Persuasive), and Harrison McClure
(Serious Prose).
The team is coached by Dr Jordan Engle, Lauren Granstrom, Kara Acino, and Janelle Armstrong.
The State Speech competition took place at Kearney High School. Speakers presented their speeches in
three preliminary rounds, with scores from those first three rounds determining who qualified for the finals
round. The six top-scoring speakers from prelims competed finals in each event.
