San Marcos High School senior Irene Morse won the recent Ronald Reagan High School Speech Invitational, taking first place in Foreign Extemporaneous Speaking. This win qualifies her for the Texas Forensics League State Championship in March 2010. She is last year's UIL State Champion. Morse joins fellow senior Kelley Mathis, who already qualified for State earlier in the year in Congressional Debate. Mathis added to her year by taking third place in the event at this tournament. She also placed Fifth overall in Domestic Extemporaneous. Frankie Torres joined partner Henry Finch, senior, in Public Forum Debate. They advanced to the finals before losing to the tournament's championship team. Their second place finish moves them to eight points overall in their quest for a state qualifier in that event, just two points shy of the required 10 points. Morse and her partner, senior Chris Hall, stand at six points overall in Public Forum. The team heads to MacArthur High School in San Antonio on Nov. 6 and 7 for the next competition. Shown above, left to right, are Frankie Torres, Henry Finch, Chris Hall, Irene Morse and Kelly Mathis.
