Congratulations to three of our Deer Lakes Middle School English Festival teams, which placed in the top three of this year’s competition!
It is the first time any Deer Lakes Middle School team has placed at the competition.
The team of Andrew O'Brien, Domenic Petruzzi, Reid Rinker, Colby Sutch, and Gavin Windows earned first place with a score of 98.
“All of us were really good friends before this, so I think that was really good for us and how everything came together,” Andrew said. “It feels great to do well.”
The team of Jillian Beiber, Lia DeForce, Josie Farster, Tessa Hollibaugh and Natalie Shaffer and the team of A.J. Balint, Elaina Dietrich, Laney Dineff, Wes Reagle, and Kristen Yurkovic were in a three-way tie for third place with a team from Knoch. Each team earned a score of 95.
“I think we all bring different qualities to the team,” Tessa said. “Everyone has their own unique strengths and when you collaborate as a team you can do well and have fun at the same time.”
Each team had to read four books in one month and complete activities like trivia questions in 20 seconds each and produce a pre-recorded talk show presentation.
“I didn’t expect to do so well, especially because we’ve never placed in the top three before, so I’m really happy we worked well together,” A.J. said.