AUSTINTOWN — Canfield High School’s speech and debate team finished fifth in team competition at the state tournament March 3 and 4 at the Austintown Local Schools campus.

Renee English, Canfield teacher and district media and communication liaison, said this is Canfield’s 13th Top 10 finish at the state speech and debate tournament in the past 15 years. Some 30 Canfield students competed at the state level in Austintown.

Solon High School finished first in team competition, followed by Massillon Perry, Hawken and Mason.

Canfield students who advanced to elimination rounds on March 4 were Hannah Brose, finalist and sixth-place finisher in Declamation category; Abigail Ambrose and Gabriella Smallwood, both in Top 12 in Declamation; William Faix, Top 12 in Original Oratory; Anna Kerns, Top 12 in United States Extemperaneous; Grace Min, Top 16 in Lincoln-Douglas Debate; Emelina Pappalardo, Top 24 in Drama; Jocelyn Zhao, Top 24 in International Extemperanous; Amir Ali, Top 24 in Program Oral Interpretation; Tarik Mashqbeh, Top 31 in Lincoln-Douglas Debate; Brian Krcelic and Jessie Robbins, both in Top 48 in Congress debate.

Almost 1,000 students from 83 high schools across Ohio competed in the multi-day competition across 11 categories of speech and debate.

Here is how some other Mahoning Valley high school teams fared in the state competition:

• Host Austintown Fitch’s squad finished 15th as a team. Brooke May finished third in Dramatic Interpretation; Merrill Voytko and Natalie Ciccone finished sixth in Duo Interpretation; Jared Giovannone finished second in Humorous Interpretation and Brayden Melia finished fourth in Congressional debate-Senate;

• Howland High School finished 17th in team competition. Jaxson Farmer finished second in Original Oratory; Katie Toepfer finished sixth in Congressional Debate; Nastasija Glisic finished as a semifinalist in Informative Speaking;

• Boardman High School finished 22nd as a team. Alexander Scmitt finished 14th in Congressional Debate, where Vincent Dong and Swathi Pandmanabhan were semifinalists; Jasmine Graham finished 28th in Lincoln-Douglas Debate; Austin Ward finished as a semifinalist in Informative speaking; Liam Bierlair and Ethan Blevins were semifinalists in Duo Interpretation;

• South Range finished 27th in team competition. Macenzee Gaal finished fourth in Program Oral Interpretation; Abbigail Harrold was a seminfinalist in Dramatic Interpretation and Toby Sell was a semifinalist in Humorous Interpretation;

• Niles McKinley’s team finished 29th, with Ashton Russo finishing as a semifinalist in Dramatic Intepretation and Avah Rodgers and Savanna Taylor being semifinalists in Duo Interpretation; Liana Johnson finished as a semifinalist in Congressional Debate- Senate;

• Youngstown Ursuline finished 32nd in team competition while parochial rival Cardinal Mooney’s team finished 36th as a team. However, Mooney’s Mitchell Bogan was a semifinalist in U.S. Extemporaneous Speaking, while teammates Sophia Sdregas finished 15th and Sarah Owens placed 34th, respectively, in Lincoln-Douglas Debate;

l Warren JFK finished 50th in team competition, but JFK’s Matthew Powell placed 11th in Congressional Debate-House;

• Liberty High School’s Aset Jones-Bey finished second in Dramatic Interpretation, the only finalist on a Leopards team that finished 52nd in team competition;

• Paige Lawton of Columbiana High School finished sixth in Original Oratory and her team placed 57th.

gvogrin@tribtoday.com