Steve Harrell, speech and debate coach at THS, said six local students, Luke Manson, Marissa Stephenson, Jessica Sturgeon, Darren Welch, Kyle Rodel and Amy Earhart, competed against students from schools of all sizes, both public and private, from across the nation.

And they did well.

Or, as Harrell said, “They were terrific.”

Luke Manson and Marissa Stephenson tied for 13th placed in duo interpretation, performing “Jerry Finnegan’s Sister,” by Jack Neary.

“They made it to 13th out of 300 duo teams,” Harrell said.

In policy debate, in which students debated national education reform, Jessica Sturgeon and Darren Welch finished 17th out of 150 debate teams.

“Jessica and Darren were undefeated going into the last round of preliminaries,” Harrell said.

Also participating in policy debate, Kyle Rodel and Amy Earhart beat the Delaware state champions in round three of Saturday’s tournament.

The teams of Manson and Stephenson, as well as Sturgeon and Welch, qualified Saturday for Sunday’s final round of competitions, in which they placed 13th and 16th respectively.

Saturday’s tournament began at 6 a.m. and ended at 10 p.m. Sunday’s events ran from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m.

But the students didn’t mind the long days.

“They had a great time,” Harrell said during a telephone call Monday morning from New York.