Lemont's Nick Lambrakis, Becca Zagorski Advance to IHSA Speech State Finals

Lemont High School’s Speech team has advanced multiple students to state finals competition for the third straight season, and fourth time in five years. At the IHSA Oak Lawn Sectional on February 14, seniors Nick Lambrakis and Becca Zagorski posted top-three finishes in their respective categories to earn berths to the 2015 IHSA Speech State Finals, which will be contested on Friday, February 20, and Saturday, February 21, at the Peoria Civic Center. Lambrakis will compete in the IHSA State Finals for the second straight season, while Zagorski will be making her first trip.

Lambrakis finished third in Dramatic Interpretation with his entry, “American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in U.S. History.” In the Dramatic Interpretation category, students present literary material from a printed, published source. In his state finals debut in 2014, Lambrakis was eighth of 21 competitors in Oratorical Declamation.

Zagorski will become the first Lemont student to compete in the IHSA Speech State Finals in the Radio Speaking category after tying for third at the IHSA Sectional. In Radio Speaking, students present a newscast, including a commercial, after being supplied with a script by the IHSA.

The 2015 IHSA Speech State Finals will begin in the afternoon on February 20 and conclude on February 21. The awards ceremony is set to begin at approximately 5:30 p.m. on February 21. The top three performers from each of 15 events at the six IHSA Sectionals advance to the IHSA State Finals. All competitors who tie for third place move on to the state finals as well, which gives some events more than 18 entrants. Lambrakis will be one of 18 competitors in Dramatic Interpretation, while Zagorski will be one of 19 in Radio Speaking.

Lemont finished third at the IHSA Sandburg Regional and advanced competitors to the IHSA Oak Lawn Sectional in 11 of 15 events. Lambrakis earned the team’s lone event win at the regional, marking his second straight IHSA Regional title; he also was an IHSA Sectional champion a year ago. Zagorski advanced to sectional competition in two categories (3rd, Radio Speaking; 4th, Informative Speaking), as did senior Maria Castrogiovanni (2nd, Original Oratory; 3rd, Special Occasion Speaking) and sophomore Justin Haase (2nd, Prose Reading; 3rd, Humorous Interpretation).

Other sectional qualifiers included juniors Dana Kahle and Clare Rachwalski, who teamed for a runner-up finish
in Dramatic Duet Acting; the Performance in the Round cast, which placed third; and senior Nick DeArcangelis (Impromptu Speaking) and sophomore Kimberly Van Hecke (Original Comedy), who were fourth in their categories.

Lemont won its sixth straight South Suburban Conference-Blue Division title in 2015, which included a first-place effort from Lambrakis in Dramatic Interpretation. The team is coached by Phil Lazzari, Sandy Doebert and Dee Hamilton.

Lemont’s best finishes in state finals competition came in 2011, when Delia Ercoli ‘11 was second in Informative Speaking and Aubree Tally ‘13 placed third in Humorous Interpretation. That year, Ercoli became the first Lemont student to qualify for state finals competition in two categories, as she also took part in Oratorical Declamation. Lemont’s other speech state finals qualifiers have included Bryan Carver ‘09 (Humorous Interpretation) in 2009; Tally (Dramatic Interpretation) and Ryan Luzzo ‘14 (Prose Reading) and in 2013; and Lambrakis (Oratorical Declamation) and Peter Marzano ‘14 (Extemporaneous Speaking) in 2014.