This weekend the Fort Scott High School Debate team traveled to Coffeyville, Kansas for Kansas State Debate contest. The regional championship team is comprised of Darby Toth, Rebekah Sweyko, Joe Adams, and Isabella Provence.
The alternates on the team were Kaden Kiwan and Ashtyn Dowell. This team took fourth place following KC Piper High School which took first place, Bishop Meige H.S. took second, and Louisburg H.S. third. In the four-speaker division, one half of the team goes affirmative the entire tournament and the other half goes negative. Then the records of both teams are combined.
In the two-speaker division, FSHS took the maximum amount of teams allowed for a school, four. In order to qualify for two-speaker state, the team must have a 50 percent win-loss record over four tournaments above the novice level.
The teams attending were Madison Toth/Mark Adams, Zoe Self/Elizabeth Ngatia, Brooklyn Lyons/Dalton Womeldorff, and Tayton Majors/Sara Al-Shawish. There were 60 teams in the tournament. All four teams broke to Double Octofinals. Madison and Mark dropped to Nickerson in Double Octofinals. Brooklyn And Dalton drop to Louisburg. Tayton and Sarah make it to Quarter Finals and end up fourth, after dropping to Topeka Hayden.
And finally, novice, Zoe Self and 2nd-year debater, Elizabeth Ngatia, drop in finals to Wichita Collegiate and bring home the 2nd place trophy. Fort Scott Debate has been state champions or state runner-ups four of the last five years.
Fort Scott High School will be hosting the state debate event next year.