So far this season, the debate team has attended eight meets before heading into December to prepare for their final tournaments in Lawrence on Dec. 4, at home on Dec. 13 and for two-speaker and four-speaker state on Jan. 16-18 in Garden City.
In the first meet held on Sept. 20 in Sterling, the varsity team of senior Sofia San Martin and junior Joseph Zolnierz came in sixth. The junior varsity team of junior Kaylee Desair and sophomore Liza Bergman ranked fifth while the JV team of sophomore Trip Burrell and sophomore Lily Stivers finished sixth. Overall, the team placed third.
In the next meet on Oct. 1 in Great Bend, the JV team of Bergman and Desair came in second. For the novice teams, freshman Evie Dietz and freshman Emily Nicholas ranked second, junior Mario Hernandez and freshman Athen Ellis placed third and junior Adriana Carillo and sophomore Pypere Hollis took fifth, with the team coming in first overall.
In the third meet on Oct. 11 in Hutchinson, for JV, Bergman and Desair won first and qualified for the state tournament. For the novice teams, Dietz and sophomore An Li came in sixth while Hernandez and Nicholas came in seventh, with the team ranked second overall.
In their following meet on Oct. 18 in Newton, the varsity team of San Martin and Zolnierz ranked third and qualified for the state tournament. For the novices, freshman Josiah Olmstead and Ellis came in sixth, Carillo and Hollis placed seventh and Li and Dietz finished eighth, with the team taking second overall.
In their fifth meet on Oct. 25 in Salina Central, the novice team of Li and Dietz earned first while the novice team of Carillo and Hollis came in second. Freshman Korbin Miller and freshman Maia Gray ranked sixth while freshman Andy Eiden and freshman Jett Klaus finished eighth. No team scoring were used in this meet.
In their next meet on Nov. 1 in Nickerson, the varsity team of Bergman and Desair earned sixth. For JV, Hernandez and Olmstead finished fourth while Nicholas and Dietz came in seventh. For novice, Miller and Gray claimed first, with the team coming in first overall.
In their seventh meet on Nov. 8 in Buhler, the JV team of Bergman and Desair came in first while novice team of Miller and Gray placed first as well. No team scorings were used in this meet.
In their following meet on Nov. 15 in Salina South, in JV, Dietz and Nicholas took first and qualified for the state tournament while Carillo and Hollis came in second. For novices, Eiden and Klaus placed sixth while freshman Tatiana Hernandez and Ellis ranked seventh. There were no team scorings were used in this meet.
“I think the team is doing phenomenally well,” coach Paul English said. “We’ve had twice as many teams competing as last year and have placed in the Top 3 for all schools at each tournament we’ve competed at. Even the novice teams are showing progress and are really getting into the spirit of debate throughout the season. I am incredibly proud of the team and am so excited to see what the future holds.”
As English prepares his team for the state tournament, he also is ready to push his debaters to next level, hoping to qualify his team for the national debate tournament held in Spokane, Wash., on April 3-7.
“As we get closer to the end of the season, we know that we are going to push ourselves to be the best we can,” English said. “Competition at the state and national level is incredibly hard, and we are still, by all accounts, a young team. We are pushing ourselves to get out to see next-level competition and get the kind of exposure we will need to see at the next level. As we look to the far future, we look to start encouraging debate at the middle school and be able to offer a full debate camp and clinic in August in advance of next year’s season. We want to grow our program and get better to be poised to take our team to the next level.”
