Last weekend three students from Guthrie County area schools qualified for the Individual Event All-State Speech Festival. Colin Stowe and Aubrey Chmelar from Adair-Casey/Guthrie Center and Mavis Nelson from Panorama were selected to perform in their categories one final time this year. Stowe qualified in solo musical theatre, Chmelar in improv, and Nelson in poetry.

This is the first year all three have participated in speech. Stowe talks about his inspiration behind his musical theatre selection. “I chose ‘Evermore’ from the new Beauty and the Beast movie. I chose this one because I remember the first time watching it and I (thought) ‘Wow that was awesome.’ So I wanted to show that off to the audience. It’s a very powerful song and I thought I could do this.”

Unlike Stowe, Chemlar had no set script during her improv performances. While some may be caught off guard by a possible topic, she was surprised when she heard she qualified. “I was right in the middle of running a 400 and I saw her (Head Coach Kelsey Moran) out of my peripheral vision and I was like, ‘Don’t get excited it’s probably not you.’ I was just about to finish and she (Moran) goes, ‘Hey Aubrey.’ I instantly dropped to the ground and started crying.”

A sophomore at Panorama, Nelson thought there was a typo on the qualifier list. “I was really shocked. I wasn’t expecting to go to All-State so I just double-checked to make sure I wasn’t misunderstanding.”

The All-State Festival is Monday, March 26 at the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls. This is the first year all three have participated in speech.