A total of 35 Greene County area students will perform tomorrow at the Iowa High School Speech Association’s large group contest.

Paton-Churdan High School is sending eight students in short film, which is called “Guess Who?” Sophomore Briana Jewett says it’s based on the board game, where there’s a crime that’s committed, they ask questions and figure out who did the crime. Sophomore Megan Carey competed in two events at districts and describes her reaction after she found out that their short film was moving onto state.

“I’m also in an improv group so like 20 minutes before that I learned that we got a (division) II (rating) for our improv group. So it just sort of bummed me out that we got a II for improv and that wouldn’t be advancing, but then it just sort of brought my spirits up when I learned we got a I (rating) and announced that we would be going to state. It was just really exciting for me.”

As for Greene County High School, they will have 27 students competing four events, which includes radio news, choral reading, readers theater and short film. Senior Hannah Stein is in choral reading and she tells Raccoon Valley Radio a challenge they had with 11 students and practicing their piece, “The Sneetches” by Dr. Seuss, since early December.

“It was sometimes challenging at practices because our choral reading this year had a lot more movement than our one did last year. So when people wouldn’t show up, it was sometimes hard to run everything. But other than that, we didn’t have too many problems.”

The contest takes place at West Des Moines Valley High School on Saturday.

A list of the qualified events and the students who competed are listed below.

Paton-Churdan High School

Short Film: Megan Carey, Briana Jewett, Carter Meseck, Eric Sabus, Ty Lynn Smith, Mason Sorenson, Eric Thompson and Kyla Beyers.

Greene County High School

Radio News: Jordan Davis, Morrgan Zmolek, Arthur Bardole, Courtney Johnson

Choral Reading: “The Sneetches” by Dr. Seuss: Kenna Marquardt, Olivia Hansen, Maddie Schroeder, Hannah Stein, Hannah Promes, Hannah McConnell, Caiti Schaben, Laurin Lyons, Chantel Flack, Emily Heupel and Michael Kennedy

Readers Theater: “The Answer is D”  Kara Betts, Regan Lamoureux, Samantha Hardaway, Sarah Erickson, Ashlee Harmeyer, Emily Bettey, Ellie Madson, Caiti Schaben, Lindsey Paulsen, Brittany Harmeyer

Short Film: “Keeping Up with the Godashians”  Michael Kennedy, Marcelo Alarcon, Emily Heupel, Natasha Groves