Graham and Quintanilla Win State Championship

MHS seniors Cam’ron Graham and Elexia Quintanilla claimed the 2026 South Dakota Class A  Public Forum championship debate trophy. The state tournament was held at Aberdeen Central from March 6-7. Cam’ron repeated as a state champion in Public Forum as he also won the title last year with Qualon Grant as his partner.

MHS coach Kathy Tyler said, “Since the first week in January, students have been researching and debating the February topic: ‘Resolved: the Federal Trade Commission should establish a federal regulatory framework for sports betting.’ Spending innumerable hours researching and writing amazing cases paid off!” 

The tournament started with five preliminary rounds. Teams that earned winning records moved to the quarterfinals. The four quarterfinal winners advanced to semifinals. The winners were decided in a final debate between the top two teams.

Cam’ron and Elexia compiled a 4-1 preliminary record to gain a spot in the quarterfinals. The duo then defeated a Douglas High team in the quarterfinals. In the semi finals, they won all three ballots to defeat the same Spearfish team that had beaten them 3-0 in round two of the preliminaries. In the finals, the Milbank team defeated another Spearfish team by winning four of the five ballots.

The freshman team of Bulldogs Kinley VanHoorn and Bella Hicks missed the quarterfinals by one vote out of the fifteen possible.  Each round was judged by three judges; each judge had one vote. VanHoorn and Hicks won two rounds, but lost the fifth by a 1-2 ballot.

Bri Hicks made it to the quarterfinals in Lincoln-Douglas Debate with her 2-1 record. She  lost to the eventual Lincoln-Douglas champion – a student from Sturgis Brown.

Tate Pew competed in Lincoln-Douglas Debate and US Extemporaneous Speaking. Armando Chan competed in International Extemporaneous Speaking and Original Oratory.

Tyler said, “Commendations go to Armando for stepping up to the plate and helping Milbank fill the spots for sweepstakes, where we placed second in the debate section, but fell to fifth overall after IEs (individual events) were calculated. Aside from earning outstanding speaker points, one judge’s comment stands out: ‘Quintanilla—by far the most level-headed speaker I have seen all tournament!’”

Tyler added, “I am so proud of these students. Their support of each other and their work ethic cannot be matched by very many schools.”