The Horizon Honors Speech and Debate team went to compete at the Gilbert Water Tower Tournament at Gilbert High School on Feb. 8, 2025. The event was speech only, so the debate students got the opportunity to compete in the speech tournament. Horizon’s team only had 21 days to prepare for this event, so everyone put a lot of effort into what they did.
All of the Horizon students did amazing within their own categories. Nine students stood out making it to semifinals, including the pairs Lyla Holst and Luna Ruiz, Aki Kandimalla andVasilisa Fedorova, and Abbi Prieto and Ainsely Olvey, who all competed in the radio broadcasting events. Prieto also won in Dramatic Interpretation (DI). Other semi finalists were: Gavin Flusche in Storytelling, Lillan Wolfe in Original Oratory (O.O) and Program Oral Interpretation (POI), and Elena Duncan-Pope in O.O. Of the nine semifinalists, three advanced on to finals. Flusche placed third in Storytelling, Wolfe placed third in both O.O and POI, and Prieto placed fourth in DI.
The Horizon Sun arranged an interview with Prieto; we asked questions about how she felt and prepared for the tournament, plus advice for others who might want to do Speech and Debate in the future.
Editor’s note: Responses have been edited for clarity.
The Horizon Sun: What did it feel like when performing?
Abbi Prieto: [I was] trying not to blank out and also getting into my character’s mindset.
The Sun: What did you think of the other competitors?
AP: I didn’t get to see too many of them, except in my final round. But they were all pretty good.
The Sun: What was your least favorite/favorite part of the tournament?
AP: I loved hanging out with my team between rounds and I love getting to see other people’s events. My least favorite part was also in between rounds because you have to wait for your rounds to come out to see if you made it into finals or not.
The Sun: How do you think you could have done better?
AP: Putting more blocking details inside my performance is what my competitors had above me.
The Sun: What advice would you give to anyone who wants to do Speech and Debate?
AP: Try as many events as possible, [and] just have fun.
The Horizon Sun congratulates the whole Speech and Debate team and wishes them luck for their next three tournaments in the month of February.
