Lincoln Southwest participated in the Annual Holiday Joust Speech Tournament held by Lincoln Southeast High School on Friday, Dec. 14, 2018.

The Southeast tournament is one of the biggest tournaments in the speech season with schools like Millard North, Lincoln High and Papillon attending.

“I thought it was a lot of fun to meet different computers from different schools,” senior Alia Ganic said. “They had a big variety of schools from all around the state and I thought it was really fun competing with them.”

Lincoln Southwest landed fourth place, while Millard North took first place. However, Varsity members junior Jananna Khattak and Ganic did final and get first place in their events, making them Varsity Champions.

“Placing 4th was pretty good given our numbers.” Speech coach Matt Heimes said “The three teams that beat us had a significant number of entries, so to get 4th with our numbers was good.”

Other finalists were juniors Zoey Moser and Tatum Johnson, and seniors Anna Knopik and Olivia McBeth.

“At first it was a little nerve-racking because I had to compete against Varsity,” McBeth said. “After the first round I started to feel more confident and then I had a lot more fun.”

The next tournament will be held at Millard North in Omaha on Saturday, Jan. 5, 2019.