BANDON- One member of the Bandon speech team ventures into poetic territory to compete in the state finals in Salem for a national competition.

Caitlyn McLauchlin practiced her best work for a freshman class at Bandon High School Wednesday to prepare for the Poetry Out Loud competition this Saturday.

McLauchlin says she has the speech team to thank for getting her to this level of competition, but says reciting poetry is much different than just public speaking.

"In speech, we get to move around a lot. I've been paying attention to some of the videos in the Poetry Out Loud website and they don't move hardly at all. They just stand there and do mostly things with their faces and eyes, so I'm trying to practice that."

14 high school students from across Oregon will be competing for a chance to enter the national competition in Washington D.C. where $50,000 in scholarship money will be awarded.

With all the time and memorization McLauchlin has put into this, she's looking to make it to the finals and hopefully win it all.

"You have to be really committed to memorizing all the teeny things, like the 'an's' that you're not supposed to put at the beginning of the lines. Mostly really small prepositions that just get you. It doesn't take me a long time to memorize things, but it does take a lot of commitment to get it right."

The Bandon speech team is also competing this week at the U of O national qualifier in Eugene Thursday and Friday.