photo by: Chris Conde

Free State High School is pictured in this file photo from September 2018.

Free State High School’s speech and debate team reached another milestone at this year’s national tournament by earning recognition as one of the best teams in the country.

The team won the School of Outstanding Distinction Award at the National Speech and Debate Tournament over the weekend, which was held virtually and included 6,500 participants from 1,400 schools.

The award recognizes the top 10 programs in the country based on their speech and debate results. Coach Kelly Thompson said in an email that it’s believed to be the first time a Kansas school has won the award.

“In at least my 12 year head coaching career, no Kansas school has ever won this award,” Thompson said in an email. “I was unable to find another coach who could recall when (or) if it had ever happened.”

The award is an improvement over results last year, when the team won an award recognizing it as one of the top 20 teams in the country.

Thompson noted that the team did well after qualifying for the most events in school history. As the Journal-World previously reported, the team qualified for 17 events this summer, which broke the previous record of 14.

“The students entered the tournament with high hopes and lofty goals, and they surpassed them in record fashion,” Thompson said.

Earlier this spring, the Free State team also won its second=straight state title for speech and forensics.

Highlighted results:

• Seniors Aiden Basore and Ethan Harris placed third in the policy debate division. Thompson said that is the highest placing at the national tournament in any event for the Free State team.

• Junior Serena Rupp was recognized with the first speaker award for Free State at the tournament. She placed ninth overall out of 450 participants.

• Senior Timothy Huffman reached the finals of the domestic extemporaneous speaking event, placing fifth among 349 participants. Huffman is the first Free State student to reach the semifinals or the finals at the national tournament, Thompson said.