Parsons High School seniors Rayce Baker and Olivia Martinez continue to lead the way for other forensics students this year, helping the team secure second place overall at the Girard tournament Saturday.
“They came back from nationals last year with an attitude of unfinished business because they didn’t perform at nationals the way they wanted to. They went to nationals in duo,” PHS forensics coach Ed Workman said. “Rayce is a forensics team captain and she has used that position to say, ‘Nationals is something you want to risk being hurt at if you fail. You want to go. You want to be there.’
“She has really brought a lot of the younger ones up. The younger ones, they see the performances and results for upperclassmen and it motivates them and it gives them that extra kick that they need. Rayce and Olivia have been huge on that this year, asking people how they are doing, constantly checking on freshmen and sophomores, trying to keep things moving. That’s how we find success.”
This past weekend was quite a line-up, with 12 schools participating.
Martinez did some serious work.
“Olivia, she got first in poetry. She got first in duo (interpretation). She got first in IDA (improvised duet acting), and she got first in POI, program oral interpretation,” Workman said.
POI is a relatively new event. It is an area of competition in which students take things such as poetry, dramatic pieces and news articles and combine them into a dramatic presentation on a subject or social concern.
“It’s quite an undertaking, because you are always looking for poems that apply to the message you are trying to convey, and you’re looking for plays you can take pieces of that apply,” Workman said. “Olivia hadn’t done it before. She had been working on one for the longest time. She finally found the time to make one. She said, ‘Should I try four events? That seems like a lot.’”
Workman encouraged her to move forward, offering his support given Martinez has been hitting home runs all year.
Martinez focused her POI on the same topic as her poetry, of being a light skinned Latina, a mestiza, and suffering prejudices from both of her mixed races and feeling as though she does not fit in anywhere.
“It’s just so close to her heart. It’s a real passion project for her. She really feels it, and (her poetry) has done well everywhere she’s gone. It’s just amazing,” Workman said.
In IDA and duo, she teamed up with her partner, Baker, so Baker received first in those two events as well.
“Probably our biggest news as a team is we added two new names to the state qualifier list. It’s nice when you have a level of excellence and you go to tournaments and you qualify for state and then you do it again. That’s wonderful and everything, but anytime you can have somebody new get to state, I mean that’s fantastic,” Workman said. “Jayce Quirin finally got free of other obligations so he could do Saturdays, and in U.S. extemporaneous he finished second and qualified for state. And then in impromptu speaking, Madelyn Armitage finished first and qualified for state. And just because he is that kind of guy, Jayce Quirin tried that one out for the first time and got second and qualified for state in that one as well. We were having a pretty good time overall.”
Other students competing who placed were Carollyn Chapman, who earned fourth in dramatic interpretation, Armitage, who earned fourth in U.S. extemporaneous, Makenzie Taliaferro who earned fourth in foreign extemporaneous, and Brelin Summers who earned fifth in humorous interpretation.
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