The Minnesota State High School League recently announced that Gustavus Adolphus College will host the state high school speech tournament in 2009 and 2010. The 2009 tournament will take place on April 17-18.
“We are honored to be selected to host a major high school league event like the state speech tournament,” said Kristofer Kracht, director of the Gustavus forensics program. “We hope that this relationship will grow into a longstanding tradition over the coming years.”
Over the past several years, Kracht has helped turn the Gustavus forensics program into one of the top programs in the country. Often competing against large Division I universities, the Gustavus forensics program has earned a top 20 national ranking in each of the last two years. The team is also defending state champions after placing first out of nine schools at the 2008 Minnesota Collegiate Forensics Association State Championship.
In addition, Kracht has founded the Gustavus Summer Speech Institute which is a six-day academic institute for students in grades 9-12 to hone their competitive speech skills. The 2008 camp had 81 attendees from eight different states.
More than 340 high schools and 9,300 students participate in competitive speech in the state of Minnesota.
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Media Contact: Director of Media Relations and Internal Communication Luc Hatlestad
luch@gustavus.edu
507-933-7510