MHS Debaters Head to National-Qualifier Tournament

All Milbank debaters travel to Harrisburg this weekend to compete in the National Qualifier Tournament on February 17-18. Kathy Tyler, head coach for MHS, predicts, “It will, no doubt, be a challenging tournament, but there are definitely national-qualifier challengers on our team!”  The tournament follows the close of the Bulldogs’ regular season on February 10-11, when Milbank won their fourth Class A sweepstakes trophy at the Rushmore Challenge in Harrisburg. 

According to Tyler, each tournament awards sweepstakes prizes to the top A and AA schools. Team members earn points by placing. The more team members a school has and the better they do at an event determines how well they fare at the end. “Milbank has had a minimum of ten entries at each major tournament, many of whom placed in the top ten,” Tyler said. “This has helped put Milbank in the sweepstakes winner’s circle. Our team won the first-place sweepstakes trophy in four of the major tournaments we attended.”

At the Rushmore Challenge, three students competed in the varsity-level Informational Oratory category. Qualon Grant placed eleventh of 34 entries. Dana Chan and Ixtal Macias, both first year debaters, also participated.

In just their second varsity-level tournament, Shane Spiering and Rylen Frerichs placed 20th of 39 entries in Public Forum. Also debating at this level were Grant and Elexia Quintanilla. Spiering  achieved a perfect speaker’s score of 30 in one of his rounds.At the junior varsity level, the duo of Ruth Luis Gomez and Evan Kretzschmar were 0-4. Camron Graham and Dane Anderson went 2-3. Carlos Olivares -Zuniga and Macias were 1-4.Trixie Coalter and Olivares-Zuniga participated in varsity Original Oratory. Olivares-Zuniga placed 20th out of 34 entries.

In Domestic Extemporaneous Speaking, Max Schuelke  placed seventh of 54 with finishes of 1,2,and 2. Spiering placed 9th out of 31 in International Extemporaneous Speaking.Schuelke also competed in varsity Lincoln-Douglas Debate. Coalter participated in JV Lincoln-Douglas Debate.
Tyler commented. “I am so proud of all of these debaters. Moving up from their regular levels of competition is a real challenge! They are handling it well.”
What’s coming up for Bulldog debaters? After the National Qualifier on February 17-18, they will turn their attention to the Student Congress Qualifier on February 25 and the State Tournament March 3-4. 

Submitted Photo: Back Row, Left to Right -Max Schuelke, Rylen Frerichs, Shane Spiering, Camron Graham, Dane Anderson, Qualon Grant. Front Row- Ixtal  Macias, Ruth Luis Gomez, Evan Kretzschmar,  Elexia Quintanilla w/trophy, Trixie Coalter, Carlos Olivares Zuniga.