The varsity speech and debate team brought home first place in debate and overall sweepstakes at the Neosho Tournament Friday and Saturday, Feb. 22-23. According to speech and debate coach Justin Smith, the tournament serves as a final preparation for the upcoming national qualifying tournaments, as teams send all their district entries to the competition. "This tournament victory is, by my estimation, the most impressive tournament victory in our debate programs 33 year history," he said.


Team Awards

• First Place - Overall Sweepstakes
• First Place - Debate Sweepstakes

Tournament Champions

• Zara Johnson and Caroline O'Shaughnessy - Public Forum Debate
• Gus Erdman - International Extemporaneous Speaking

Finalists

• Public Forum Debate - Jancyn Appel and Shirom Makkad
• Policy Debate - Adrian Castaner, Josh Huang, Lily Jiang, Mulan Jiang, David Marvin and Davis Miller
• Lincoln Douglas Debate - Nichole Calvin
• United States Extemporaneous Speaking - Pallavi Jonnalagadda

Semifinalists

• International Extemporaneous Speaking - Jackson Letts, Shirom Makkad and Tristan Wells
• United States Extemporaneous Speaking - Nick Loomis
• Informative Speaking - Zoe Ganter, Zara Johnson and Maggie Johnston
• Oratory - Kat Brown
• Humorous Interpretation - Davis Miller and Meghan Sabharwal
• Program of Oral Interpretation - Meghan Sabharwal