Speech 2025: Moorhead earns ninth consecutive Class AA team championship

Moorhead continued its Speech State Tournament dominance with its ninth consecutive Class AA team championship Saturday, April 26 at Shakopee High School.

Moorhead compiled 88 points and won 17 medals, tied for the third most by a school in a single year. Eastview was runner-up with 44 points, just one point ahead of third-place Apple Valley.

• Three of the 13 individual champions came from Moorhead, including a pair of repeat winners. Evan Froslie (Storytelling) and Eleanor Culloton (Informative Speaking) earned their second gold medals. Allie Skauge was victorious in Humorous Interpretation.
• Eastview's Sahiti Atluri won the Creative Expression category for the third year in a row. Teammate Joseph Panikkar also finished first, in Great Speeches.
• St. Cloud Tech's Emerie Schraw also became a multi-time state champion with her second consecutive Extemporaneous Reading gold.
• Willmar's Brandon Valladares and Adamaris Moreno captured the Duo Interpretation title. Valladares, a member of the MSHSL Student Advisory and Leadership Team (SALT), was the Original Oratory runner-up last season.
• The fifth-place finisher in Original Oratory a year ago, Apple Valley's Isra Yasin took first this time. Also medalists in 2024, Ayoub Farah of Owatonna (Discussion) and Boyana Nikolova (Irondale) were awarded gold in 2025.
• Serious Interpretation champions were Meredith Leo of Lakeville North in Drama, Taymoi Epps of Columbia Heights in Poetry and Mahlet Samuel of Apple Valley in Prose.