It’s been a few weeks since the Iowa High School Speech Association’s State Individual Events Competition, and two individuals from Guthrie County were selected to move on to the All-State Competition.

Panorama student Avery Bahrenfuss was able to advance in the storytelling event. She tells Raccoon Valley Radio how excited she is to have been able to go to All-State this year.

“I am very honored and thankful for this opportunity that I’ve been given. It takes a lot of hard work to be nominated for this performance, and, yeah. Just overall, very thankful and very excited that I get to go back again.”

Adair – Casey / Guthrie Center High School student Natalie Kent is the other individual who was chosen to advance. Her speech coach Jessica Fridley explains what she hopes Kent is able to take away from the experience.

“I just hope she enjoys it. She worked so hard. All-State is so much fun just to be able to be in that atmosphere. It’s more of a celebration rather than a contest. So I just hope she just enjoys seeing people, enjoys being in the spotlight, and enjoys the fact that she made it this far after so much hard work.”

Kent will be performing in the expository address event, and both she and Bahrenfuss will be heading to the University of Northern Iowa on Monday to compete at the All-State contest.