LHS Debate advances to compete at the State Championship tournament hosted by Derby High School on January 16-17. We placed 2nd at the regional tournament hosted by Topeka High School on Dec. 19. The students competing are Kelli Sturm (senior), Bradlea Padgett (junior), Hayley Luna (senior), and Stefan Petrovic (junior).

Lawrence and Free State high schools will send seven varsity teams to compete in the Kansas 6A state tournament competition in Derby in mid-January, with several of them heading on to other prestigious tournaments as well.

Lawrence High’s four-speaker team will compete with seven other schools in the four-speaker division for the state championship at Derby High School, Jan. 16 and 17. Meanwhile, in the two-speaker team division, Lawrence High will send two teams and Free State High will send four more to compete against 21 other schools.

Free State will also send one two-speaker team, seniors Solomon Cottrell and Parker Hopkins, to the National Speech and Debate Tournament in Dallas, held June 14 through 19.

“This group of students work hard to prepare for every tournament,” Free State coach Jason Moore said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if any of our teams advance deep into the tournament.”

The LHS four-member team consists of seniors Kelli Sturm and Hayley Luna and juniors Bradlea Padgett and Stefan Petrovic. Luna and Petrovic were members of the four-speaker team that placed third at the state tournament last year.

“This is about as strong and as deep a debate team as we’ve had since I’ve been here,” Lawrence High coach Jeff Plinsky said of his four-speaker unit. “I hope we have as good of a showing, if not better (than last year).”

Lawrence High’s two-speaker teams feature junior Jesse Belt partnered with sophomore Sungho Hwang and sophomore Michael Braman partnered with Bryce Dunn.

The Free State two-speaker teams heading to state are: Cottrell and Hopkins; junior Linda Liu and sophomore Sophia Swanson; senior Adam Strathman and junior Nikki Myers; and junior Genevieve Prescher and sophomore Paige Lawrence.

Plinsky said two-speaker teams qualify for state by winning at least half of their debates in invitational competitions. Four-speaker teams qualify through tournament play.

Out of the Topeka Regional, held Dec. 19 through 20, Lawrence High and Manhattan High beat out Free State and two other schools for spots in the four-speaker state competition with 6-2 records. Free State finished third with a 3-5 record.

Debaters from both teams will also be featured at the Debate Coaches Invitational, Jan. 9 through 10 at Blue Valley North High School in Overland Park. The annual competition, organized by debate coaches across the state, pits up to 40 of the best teams, regardless of school classification, against each other.

Petrovic and Luna will represent LHS while Cottrell and Hopkins will debate for FSHS, according to their respective coaches. Free State’s Prescher and Liu also qualified for the tournament but cannot attend, Moore said.