Practice often enough that you rarely need to look at your cards. Remember this is a friendly audience. Your peers and your judges are pulling for you. You need the reinforcement that their encouraging expressions will give you. Look at them.
True communication happens with the eyes.
A speech without eye contact is only half a speech. You have a right to be. You have accomplished a great deal. White knuckles are so unattractive. You've come too far to faint now.