By DIANE GASPER-O'BRIEN

dobrien@dailynews.net

Stephanie Roberts and Lexi Copeland were instrumental in trying to help build the Hays High School forensics program last spring.

The two HHS students volunteered to talk about the program to middle school students.

Then they went out and did what really impresses people.

They qualified for nationals.

Roberts, who graduated from Hays High in spring, and Copeland, who will be a senior there this fall, made their trip this summer to the National Forensics League Tournament in Las Vegas well worth the trip.

Their duet interpretation selection, with which they represented the West Kansas National Forensics League District at nationals, finished in the top half of the nearly 250 entries, making it to the sixth round and placing 113th overall.

In addition, Copeland made it all the way to the semifinals of a supplemental round of solo competition and ended up in the top 10 and received a plaque.

"I was joking the whole time that if I get cut, I can go shopping," said Copeland, who went through eight rounds and made the semifinal round of 13 and finished ninth out of the 376 prose entries.

It was the first time since 2002 that Hays High qualified any students for the national forensics competition.

Coincidentally, one of the qualifiers that year was Roberts' older brother, Eric Roberts.

The younger Roberts sibling said it was "really amazing" qualifying for nationals in her final year of high school.

In fact, she accomplished that feat twice.

Roberts also qualified a dramatic solo piece for nationals. However, students can compete in only one event at nationals, and Roberts chose the duet so she and Copeland could both attend.

At nationals, Roberts also participated in the same supplemental round as Copeland and made it to the fourth round with her selection, "Now I need a Place to Hide Away." That placed her 158th, or in the top 58 percent, of the 376 competitors.

Now, Roberts hopes to take advantage of some of those experiences to college at Fort Hays State University, where she plans to major in archeology.

"It really helped with public speaking and being able to stand in front of people and express yourself," Roberts said of her experiences in forensics.

Copeland, whom Roberts talked into getting into forensics just last year, said she is "pretty excited for next year."

It might take that long for her to realize what she accomplished this year.

In performing her humorous selection, "Angus, Thongs and Full Frontal Snogging: Confessions of Georgia Nicholson," Copeland was relaxed while making the cut round after round.

"Every time, I was very surprised," she said of her continual climb up the ladder. "I was pretty nonchalant, because this is my first time. I didn't have a concept about what to expect."

Now, Copeland knows what to expect.

So does her coach, Zach Butte.

Butte, who still was a college student during HHS' last trip to nationals, is in his third year of teaching and coaching forensics at Hays High.

"The bar has been set rather high for the remainder of my teaching career," Butte said, adding that's OK. "We hope to have those expectations become yearly and not every five or six years. We could have great things come out of our forensics with this experience."