Southeast Debate Wins Second
by Gary Leiker
The Southeast Debate Squad captured its first sweepstakes trophy of the season with a strong second place finish at the Caney Valley High School Debate Tournament on Saturday, November 8. Fifteen schools competed at the five-round tournament. Two Southeast novice teams earned individual honors, as well.
"Bringing home a team trophy wasn't anything we had really talked about," commented coach Gary Leiker. "When I saw that we had two teams in the top eight in novice division and three more teams with 3-2 records, I thought we might have a shot." Fort Scott placed first with 16 wins, followed by Southeast with 14 wins.
In one of the most competitive tournaments of the season, only one team in novice division ended with a perfect 5-0 record and a first place finish. All of the teams that rounded out the top eight had identical 4-1 records, and were only separated by two speaker points. Several tiebreakers were used to determine the final placings. The second place team from Coffeyville finished with a 4-1 record, 19 speaker points, and 15 opposition wins. Southeast juniors Micah McCready and Ali Blanchard earned their second third place finish of the season with a 4-1 record, 19 speaker points, and 14 opposition wins. "I was impressed with Ali's perseverance given the fact that she was debating sick all day," noted Leiker. "Hopefully placing third will help her feel a little better."
Also placing at the tournament was the junior novice team of Dainya Thacker and Will Bolt. Dainya and Will closed out the tournament with a 4-1 record, 21 speaker points, and an eighth place finish. "Dainya and Will have been through a lot already this season, and I'm happy they were rewarded for their efforts."
"Winning a team sweepstakes trophy is hard to do," observed Leiker, "and we couldn't have done it without the strong efforts of our other teams. I hope we can take away from this weekend the lesson that being young doesn't mean we can't be successful. There are still things I would like to see us accomplish, and if we work hard I like our chances."
