McDowell junior Sarah Granahan won the PA High School Speech League State Championship in Informative Speaking at the State Championship Tournament this weekend at Susquehanna University in Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania. The tournament pits the district champions and runners-up from the 12 districts across the state against each other. Sarah was the District I Champion.

We have had dozens of students qualify to compete at states, many advanced to the state semifinals, and seven advanced to the Championship round. Three students have finished as runners-up in the state. Even our National Champion was a runner-up! Sarah is our first State Champion. If you can please congratulate her on this wonderful accomplishment, that would be fantastic.

Additionally, sophomore Robert Mingey won all four of his prelim debates and was ranked #1 after the prelim rounds. Robert advanced all the way to the State Semi-Final round. He should be commended for this strong performance.

William G.R. Caugherty, McDowell Speech & Debate
P.H.S.S.L. Individual Events State Finalists: 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007
P.H.S.S.L. Individual Events State Runners-Up: 2005, 2006
P.H.S.S.L. Informative Speaking State Champion: 2007
National Forensics League National Qualifiers: 2004, 2005, 2006
National Forensics League Finalists: 2006
N.C.F.L. National Qualifiers: 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007
N.C.F.L. Original Oratory National Champion: 2006

Over 60 District or Season Champions, 58 National Qualifiers, 7 State Finalists, 4 Academic All-Americans, 3 State Runners-Up, 1 State Champion
1 National Champion, and we are just getting started!

The McDowell Boys indoor track and field team won the Pennsylvania Track and Field Association Indoor State Championship, on Saturday February 24th at Penn State University. And the Trojans did it in record fashion. McDowell set five school records for a six point win over Neshaminy. The team consisted of Brice Myers, Dan Kwiatkowski, Chad Noce, Eston Winn, Peter Overare, Johnny Dogun, Aaron Fitzpatrick, Alex Schmude, Emmanuel Overare, George Brown, and Josh Freeman.

Coach Sanford remarked that From top to bottom every one of the kids had personal bests and performed the best they ever have Brice Myers led the Trojans with a first place finish in the 60 meter hurdles in a time of 8.0 seconds. Emmanuel Overare finished second in the triple jump (47 inches) and Johnny Dogun, Josh Freeman, Aaron Fitzpatrick and Brice Myers finished fourth in the1,600m relay (3:24.68). Chad Noce (57′8″ ) placed third and Dan Kwiatkowski (54′9″ ) place sixth in the shot put. Aaron Fitzpatrick placed sixth in the 400m dash(50.37)

Congratulations Trojans for a wonderful team effort!!

Also congratulations to Coach Joe Sanford for being named the Indoor Track and Field Coach of the year.

The McDowell High School dance team has had a very rewarding season thus far. On March 4th, they attended the CCC Hard Rockin Nationals in Cleveland, Ohio and not only took 1st place in the Varsity Jazz division, but took overall Grand Champion of the dance competition. This is just one of the many accomplishments the team has had this season. They have won 5 choreography awards, numerous 1st place trophies and on February 11th, they again took 1st place in their division and received a bid to attend the NLCC Worlds Best Championships in Baltimore, Maryland to be held on May 4th, 2007. These girls have worked very hard to accomplish what they have this season and will continue to do so in hoping to bring back that World Championship trophy in May.