Edmunds County Tribune -

The 112th Annual SDHSAA State Oral Interpretation Festival was held in Huron on Friday and Saturday, December 3-4.

The State Oral Interpretation Festival, one of the longest running activities sponsored by the South Dakota High School Activities Association, is the "State Championship" competition for South Dakota's high school Oral Interpretation speakers and is the cumulating competition for the 2021 Oral Interpretation season.

IHS Sophomore Sam Grabowska received a superior rating for his humorous interpretation in the Class B division. He performed "Graduation" by Jerry Rabushka.

The 2021 State Festival featured statewide competition for South Dakota's top speakers in Class "AA", Class "A" and Class "B" high schools. Each State Festival entry qualified for the Festival through a series of local school, district and regional elimination contests.

Students competed to achieve "Superior" ratings in the seven Oral Interpretation events (Duet, Humorous Reading, Non-Original Oratory, Poetry, Readers Theatre, Serious Reading and Storytelling) for each school classification. Receipt of a "Superior" rating at the State Festival is the equivalent of a winning a state championship in the event. During the State Festival "Superior" ratings were achieved by 52 Class "AA" entries. There were 61 "Superior" ratings awarded to Class "A" entries and 65 Class "B" entries achieved "Superior" ratings.

Schools whose students demonstrate high levels of performance excellence at the State Festival are recognized with "Team Excellence" Awards. In the Class "AA" competition the "Team Excellence" Awards were presented to 7 schools. In Class "A," 14 schools earned "Team Excellence" Awards. 17 Class "B" schools achieved the "Team Excellence" designation.

Results are available at: https://www.sdpb.org/blogs/sports-and-leisure/2021-state-oral-interpretation-festival-results/