Hays ? The Kansas University men’s basketball team may have come up short, but Kansas does have a national champion this year.

Fort Hays State University has brought home its first national championship in debate in what happens to be the school’s centennial year.

Seniors Joe Ramsey and Jason Regnier stormed through the preliminary rounds of the 2002 Cross Examination Debate Assn. national tourney at Fullerton, Calif., this past week with a 7-1 record, then won all six of their debates in the single-elimination final round.

“This comes at such a good time,” said coach Bill Shanahan, who also is enjoying his first national title in 18 years of coaching debate. “Being in the centennial year, it just adds to the luster. I consider this to be the pinnacle of my professional career.”

Fort Hays State’s final victory was in a field of more than 200 teams. The team’s triumph included a win over perennial powerhouse Michigan State University for the first time in five tries this year.

“They had owned us this year,” Regnier said of the Spartans.

All four of Fort Hays State’s debaters this year were from Kansas. Ramsey attended high school in Nickerson, Regnier is from Salina. Other team members are Brent Saindon from Derby and Paul Mabrey from Manhattan.