The Greene County and Paton-Churdan Speech Teams performed well at the Iowa High School Speech Association State Large Group Contest, but one entry stood above.

According to IHSSA, Greene County’s Group Improv ensemble of Lucy Vander Linden, Savannah Lansman and Aden Bardole were selected for the All-State Festival. Lansman is a senior and she recalls how she found out about making it to All-State that was released this past Monday.

“I got a call from my sister, actually, because she had been watching it all day. And she was the one that told me that we had made it. Of course, I was at a basketball game, so I’m in the locker room with the girls, and all they do is hear me scream because I had been waiting all day as well. So, at least to say, I was very excited.”    

Vander Linden is another senior and explains her character started their performance of a magic pen that makes anything drawn come to life. She describes the unique situation their group was in at the state contest, because there was a time discrepancy during their planning period that they weren’t able to have a fully developed plot.

“It was really fun to watch just this under-prepared group just knock it out of the park with it, because it was so high energy. And even though we didn’t really have a solid line of plot it was a lot of fun. So I think we did very well for what we had.”

According to Greene County Speech Coach, Musical Theatre and Choral Reading each received straight Division I-Ratings from the room judges, but were not selected for All-State. The Paton-Churdan Speech Coach Amanda Tasler says Choral Reading received an overall Division I-Rating as well at the state contest.

The Greene County Group Improv was noted as a non-performing entry to All-State, which the festival will be held on February 21st at Iowa State University.