One morning this week, Lawrence High junior Hayley Luna received a text message from her debate coach, Jeff Plinsky, as she prepared for the semifinals of the National Speech and Debate Tournament’s congressional debate category.

“All of LHS’ eyes are on you. Go get ’em,” Plinsky wrote.

No pressure. But Luna, who clinched at least a top-60 finish for the school for the third straight year, had shaken most nerves by Wednesday in Overland Park. Tasked with arguing a variety of bills on topics such as arms sales to Iraq and ending aid to Syrian rebels, Luna rose from her seat to accept the challenge of giving her group’s introductory speech to kick off the semifinal round.

“All that preparation and stress was worth it,” she said Friday, her summer now finally having begun.

She won’t know what exact placement she received for several weeks, but Plinsky said Luna is guaranteed a spot between 30th and 60th place. Luna follows 2013 LHS graduate Lauren Pauls, who finished in the top 45 in 2012 and 2013.

The tournament, which began Monday and concluded Friday, bills itself as the largest academic competition in the world: More than 4,000 students from across the country compete in one of 11 main events. Students qualify for it by placing in a top spot in an event at their respective district tournaments.

Though the Overland Park Convention Center wasn’t far from home, competing against hundreds of the nation’s top debaters, who happen to also be unfamiliar faces, added a wrinkle to the competition not present during the regular season. Freshman Sungho Hwang said he was more accustomed to debating a topic in several tournaments leading up to a larger event. Still, he said, pretty soon nationals began to feel like “just another tournament.” He went on to win three ballots in the Lincoln-Douglas Debate, which is a type of one-on-one event that at this year’s tournament considered whether the United States should prioritize national security over citizens’ digital privacy.

“You’ve got to have talent to be at that level of competition,” Plinsky said. “As long as we can keep talent coming into the program we should be able to have that kind of showing. The work ethic here is notable: top 60 in the nation is a pretty good indicator.”

FSHS sends five

Free State High sent five students to the week’s national competition, ranking it near the top among fellow schools in the East Kansas District.

Seniors Hannah Moran and Yangyan Li, junior Solomon Cottrell and sophomores Linda Liu and Genoveve Prescher represented the Firebirds this week in Overland Park. Assistant coach Michael Shelton said no student made it out of the preliminary rounds, but didn’t hesitate to call the showing a success.

Especially, he added, given the nature of the now-completed season: Shelton joined the team as an assistant coach four weeks into the season and one week after the hiring of first-time head coach Jason Moore.

“There’s something to be said for just getting that first year under our belts,” Shelton said. “I think things are looking just as good if not better for next year.”

Shelton continued by saying what excited him most was that although Free State bids farewell to a few seniors, he thought the team would return a good core in 2014-15.