Winders repeats as local ‘Poetry Out Loud’ champ

PALMER — Twelve Mat-Su Valley students competed Feb. 9 in the second annual Mat-Su Regional Poetry Out Loud Championship in the Colony High School theater.

Poetry Out Loud is a national competition that encourages students to learn about great poetry through memorization and recitation. The dozen contestants represented Wasilla Lake Christian School, Burchell High School, Twindly Bridge Charter School and Colony High School.

Whitney Winders of Colony High took top honors for the second year with her dramatic recitations of Ai’s “Conversation” and Rita Dove’s “American Smooth.” Winders will represent the Valley at this year’s Alaska finals in Juneau. She also took runner-up honors at the 2011 state championship.

Colony High’s Jill Hazlitt earned runner-up with performances of “Ovation” by Carol Muske-Dukes and “I’m a Fool to Love You” by Cornelius Eady. Shane Preuit of Twindly Bridge took third place with his renditions of Lewis Carroll’s “Jabberwocky” and Robert Frost’s “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening.”