DECA participated in their third competition this year at Leavenworth High School on Wednesday, Nov. 8. Of the 29 members who went, seven ranked third or higher overall.

According to senior Allie Harvey, a majority of the members who attended place and participants, both new and returning, felt good about their performance.

Senior Hailey Stelle placed second in her roleplay and attributes this to her mentality before and after the meet.

“I felt good [going into my roleplay] because I liked the prompt and it gave me a lot of ideas,” Stelle said. “I was confident about my roleplay after I presented my information to the judge and I think my test went well too.”

As a first year member, Harvey, who ranked second in the Hotel and Lodging Management event, believes the team as a whole was well-prepared, but nervous as well.

“I think we felt good, but you never really know what is going to come at [you in] a DECA meet because you’re presented with a new scenario every meet,” Harvey said. “It is just how well you handle pressure and use quick thinking to come up with a solution that fits all of the criteria.”

Stelle has seen the new members strengthen their skillsets throughout the season and considers Leavenworth one of the best meets so far.

“We did really well as a team considering this was our third competition,” Stelle said. “We had a lot of practice and we’ve improved a lot.”

Harvey agrees and hopes the team continues to perform well in upcoming competitions.

“I think we just need to continue to work on concepts that can pertain to our category so we can do better on our tests in the future,” Harvey said. “The whole team did great.”