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‘Remarkable Turnaround’ at state: Tonganoxie High debate nabs 2-speaker medals, just misses out on more hardware as 4-speaker takes 4th

By Staff | Jan 20, 2021

The Tonganoxie High School debate team wraps up another successful season. Pictured, front row, from left, Monika Hoffman and Mary Harbour; middle row, Elizabeth Graveman, Jacob Howell, Katherine Wombwell and Katelyn Bothwell; back row, from left, Graham Foley, Dajarrio White, Samuel Spiker, Clara Altenhofen and Kaitlyn Skinner. Not pictured are Cayden Hunter, Morgan Brusven and Callie Seber.

Tonganoxie High School experienced a pretty big weekend during the Class 4A state debate championships and just missed a trophy and additional medals in the process.

The 4-speaker team advanced to state by nabbing the final spot at regionals and then turned around and finished fourth overall at state.

THS coach Steve Harrell said the team lost by a single ballot, and missed out on second and third places by tiebreakers.

Tonganoxie advanced to state with an overall losing record at regionals, but the team regrouped in advance of state Friday and Saturday. Lyons High School hosted the virtual tournament.

Harrell said assistant coach Matthew Christensen worked with the affirmative team on a new case and “moved some kids around.”

The affirmative team went 6-1 at state, as the 4-speaker team went 8-6 overall. That was the same record as Paola and McPherson, which finished second and third at state, respectively.

“That’s a pretty remarkable turnaround,” Harrell said about the team’s resilience at state after its finish at regionals. “We were just that close to the middle of it all. We were pretty excited with how it all turned out.”

Bishop Miege won state this year with a 13-1 overall record in 4-speaker debate.

Team members for 4-speaker at state were senior Dajarrio White, freshman Graham Foley, sophomore Elizabeth Graveman, freshman Callie Seber, sophomore Katelyn Bothwell and freshman Cayden Hunter.

Harrell noted that White was one of the top speakers in the tournament.

In 2-speaker, the teams of seniors Jacob Howell and Samuel Spiker and then seniors Mary Harbour and Monika Hoffman both made the top eight but lost in quarterfinals. Those teams finished fourth, again by one ballot. The performances earned those teams state medals.

Meanwhile, the team of seniors Clara Altenhofen and Katherine Wombwell finished 13th, while the team of senior Morgan Brusven and junior Kaitie Skinner finished 25th.

Hayden won the 2-speaker title in 4A.

Blue Valley Northwest won the 6A title in 2-speaker, while Salina South won 5A and Sacred Heart 3-2-1A.

In other 4-speaker state tournaments, Washburn Rural won 6A, Blue Valley Southwest 5A and Wichita Collegiate 3-2-1A. Collegiate finished the tournament with a perfect 14-0 record.

Debate season this year provided some adjustments with tournaments being virtual due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Harrell said the first tournaments were a little rough with everyone involved adjusting to debates by Zoom, but once everyone got in a groove with the various technology considerations, it became a pretty smooth process.

Tonganoxie debaters won about 58 percent of their competitions this season.

That included all 15 freshmen finishing the season with winning records.

“So that’s pretty exciting for the future,” Harrell said.

With judging also happening virtually, Harrell’s pool of local judges for events Tonganoxie hosted this year included more alumni he hadn’t seen in awhile, so that was a silver lining.

When tournaments return to their traditional in-person format, Harrell expects there to still be some virtual competitions in the mix.

“We follow the debate format,” Harrell explained. “Two teams, three judges, seven people in the room. When it’s over, everybody says their salutations and wishes everybody good luck.”

There’s not much of a breather for students competing on the THS forensics squad as well. Harrell said students would be submitting videos later this week for the first forensics tournament, which is set for Jan. 30.

“We’re jumping right into it,” Harrell said.