Gage Strawmatt and Mark Messner qualified for nationals in forensics with the Woodland Park High School team. Despite only bringing six competitors, Woodland Park placed seventh overall across all 4A and 3A schools in Colorado. Strawmatt and Messner qualified for nationals with first place together in duo interpretation, Peyton Simon placed fourth in humor interpretation and Elena Starr earned seventh in program oral interpretation.

“It’s a very surreal feeling,” Strawmatt said. “To go from never competing before to qualifying for nationals at my second tournament and winning state at my third tournament ever is just wild to think about. And it was all thanks to Mark. Without him I wouldn’t have been able to get close to achieving that so I’m just incredibly grateful for him.”

Duo interpretation can be an incredibly challenging event requiring high amounts of precision. The competitors aren’t allowed to touch so every movement must be memorized in order to ensure they would not touch.

“Everything movement had to be perfect every time we performed or it would all fall apart,” Strawmatt said.

Nationals will be held April 16th-20th in Detroit at Tennessee State University.