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Fort Scott debaters place second at state
Fort Scott debaters placed second in the two- and four-speaker competition in the state contest.
"I couldn't be prouder," coach Brian Weilert said in a news release. "We graduated so many seniors last year; just two of our squad competing this year had debated at a state tournament. The key to a successful program is continuity of expectations. These younger kids showed that they believed they could not only compete at this level, but do so at a high level."
The team traveled to Silver Lake this past weekend for the contest.
The four-speaker team of Baker Weilert, Reed Ramsey, Allison Piatt and Caleb Moore qualified by winning the regional tournament in late December. The squad battled hard trailing Eldorado by a win until the next-to-last round where the Tigers overcame the deficit, tying in wins but holding the ballot count tie-breaker.
The final round matched the two top teams with the winner taking the title. Fort Scott came up short but still had an outstanding tournament as the state runner-up, Weilert wrote. This marks the sixth consecutive year the squad has brought home a four-speaker state trophy (top three).
At the two-speaker affair, the Tigers found success against 73 teams competing for the title.
The pairings of Gage Addington/Jasmine Davis and Jesse Guerrero/Rebeka Khajehpour had strong showings. Each went 4-2 and missed breaking into octofinals by just two speaker points.
Sophomores Tyler Slinkard and Taylor Watkins also finished 4-2, but their speaker points where good enough to launch them into the top 16 as the No. 9 seed. Here they came up short eventually losing on a 1-2 decision.
Also representing Fort Scott at the two-speaker state tournament were seniors Ashley Allen and Eric Garner.
Taylor Nielson and Mathew Higgins were alternates on the four-speaker team.