At Saturday’s state 4A competition at Washburn Rural High School, THS came in third, following El Dorado, which took first, and Lansing, which took second.

Steve Harrell, THS debate and forensics coach, noted that the THS team came in at just four points behind Lansing.

“I think we had a successful season,” Harrell said. “We had kids finish in the top 10 in the events 225 times this year.”

And Harrell noted that THS qualified to compete in 27 events at the 4A competition, but the state limits schools to 16 entries. Because of this, there is competition within the squad to make it to state.

Overall, the squad finished in the top three as a squad 11 times at different tournaments throughout the season, Harrell said. This included four first-place finishes.

At the state championship, the students compete against students from other schools. This differs from the state forensics festival, at which THS forensics also made a showing on Saturday.

At the festival, held at Kansas City Kansas Community College, THS students received 1 ratings in six events and 2 ratings in four events.

Students can not compete in both the state meet and the festival, Harrell said.

“Usually that’s more of our younger kids,” Harrell said. “It gives them something to shoot for.”

Here’s the rundown of results from the state 4A competition:

Prose: Kaitie Pestock, second; Heather Young, 13th, and Shadoe Barton.

Poetry: Shadoe Barton, eighth; Kaitie Pestock, ninth, and Heather Young.

Duet: Rachel Bouza and Paula Prosser, fifth; and Heather Harrison and Laura Graveman.

Extemporaneous: Jason Smith and Ben Jefferies.

Oration: Jake Williams, seventh; and Zack Pistora.

Informative: Ben Jefferies, second; and Megan Holton, sixth.

Serious solo: Joel Nido.

Humorous solo: Garrett Kelly.

Lincoln Douglas Debate: Tyler Truesdell, fourth, and Jeff Gravatt, seventh.

At the state forensics festival, students received the following ranks:

1 Ratings: Sandy Elliott in prose, Justin Smith in prose, Tristan Bowersox in prose, Tabitha Flaherty in humorous solo, Paige Robinson in humorous solo, and Sarah Larson and Becca Boelling in duet.

2 ratings: Colt Coffin in prose, Liz Higbee in humorous solo, Sandy Elliott in oration, and Mike Fonkert and Zach Young in improvised duet.