This past weekend, the Waterloo High School Speech Team competed at Sectionals. Now, 13 team members will compete at state.

The IHSA state meet takes place Feb. 18-19 at Peoria Civic Center.

Those advancing were Emma Wittenauer, who placed second in Humorous Interpretation at sectionals and Anna Kuhnert, who placed second in Original Oratory. The WHS Performance in the Round cast took first place at the sectional and therefore will also advance to state. Claire Papenberg, Christian Hodges, Carissa Groves, Gillian Marquardt, Audrey Davis, Summer Wilson, Erica Crook, Kamryn Zavorka, Sarah Hanlin, Victoria Cyvas and Kate Goldschmidt comprise the Performance in the Round cast.

This year marks the Performance in the Round cast’s fourth sectional championship in a row.

In other accolades, the speech team never finished any lower than second place all season and won the IHSA Regional Tournament.

Head coach John Rickert said this is the second time in school history WHS has achieved this high mark.

Cyvas, Marissa Hoffman, Wittenauer, Kuhnert and Austin Bedford finished in the top 25 of all Southern Illinois Speech and Acting League students.