Thousands of students are meeting at four locations today for the Iowa State High School Speech Association Tournament. Association Executive Director Craig Ihnen says today’s contest is the “large group” competition.The categories of large group include: one-act play, group improvisation, choral reading, ensemble acting, group and solo mime, television newscasting and musical theatre. Today’s participants made it through district competition last month.Approximately 22-thousand students started in the competition and that’s been cut to around 12-thousand. A three-person panel judges students, but Ihnen says the ratings students receive aren’t the most important aspect of the competition as students learn valuable skills.The contest takes place at four high schools: North Fayette, Sioux City East, Des Moines Hoover and Grinnell. The competition is open to the public.