Nickerson senior Mallory Teufel and her fellow debate team members have an understanding with their coach, Dakota Yates, when it comes to tournaments.
 
But with a Class 3-2-1A state championship on the line Saturday in Wichita, Yates slightly deviated from protocol.
 
“He does not tell us how we’re doing,” Teufel said. “We can’t ask him because he won’t tell us.
 
“But he did say, and I quote, ‘If we win this next round, we’re going to be very happy today.’”
 
The Panthers’ four-speaker team of Teufel, senior Dacotah Gamber, junior Cody Spurlock and sophomores Alec Brown and Haley McGill took the hint and ran with it, knocking off three-time defending champion Wichita Collegiate for Nickerson’s first state debate title since 1969. Both teams posted 11-1 records in the two-day competition. The Panthers won the tiebreaker with 32 judges’ ballots to Collegiate’s 31.
 
“The last round against Collegiate was very stressful, but it was very thrilling and fun,” said Teufel, a four-year member of the Panthers’ debate team. “It wasn’t smooth and easy. You have to go into each and every round with the same amount of energy.”
 
Nickerson completed a trifecta after winning the Central Kansas League title and what Yates believed was the school’s first four-speaker regional title in December, when the Panthers edged Salina Sacred Heart on a speaker-points tiebreaker after posting identical won-loss and judges’ ballots marks.
 
At state, Nickerson, Collegiate and Sacred Heart claimed the top three spots.
 
“Our students have an amazing drive to succeed, and understand the hard work necessary to do so,” Yates said. “It was all the hours spent before and after tournaments on researching arguments and practicing skills that took them to the next level.
 
“Their resilience and work ethic were the deciding factor this season.”
 
The Panthers featured a blend of complementary strengths that aided in their success. Spurlock and Gamber are talented extemporaneous speakers, Teufel said. Brown provides a deliberate clarity. McGill, like Teufel, maintains a level-headedness that works well amid counter arguments.
 
“We have a very good and dedicated coach,” Teufel said. “We have a lot of people on our team who are passionate about debate and I’m sure we’re one of the very few schools who do after-school practices throughout the whole season.”
 
The Panthers were vigilant in their state preparation, even taking on at-home assignments when a snow squall warning prevented them from getting together over the holiday break. After finishing fourth at state in the four-speaker division a year ago, Nickerson’s confidence was high entering last weekend’s tournament.
 
“Coach Yates gave us a talk a while back about how some schools may have this certain view of us because we’re small that we wouldn’t be able to do this,” Teufel said. “But he ignited that passion in everyone and just pushed us to be the best version of ourselves.”

 

NEW-LOOK WASHBURN RURAL CONTINUES STRANGLEHOLD ON 6A FOUR-SPEAKER TITLE

The bar for Washburn Rural debate is always set as high as possible.
 
That’s only natural, considering the Junior Blues entered the 2022-23 season riding a string of six consecutive Class 6A four-speaker state championships. Last year, Rural even raised the stakes a bit by adding the two-speaker state championship as well.
 
But after graduation claimed the foursome of Jiyoon Park, Zach Willingham, Sonya Doubledee and Donna Jalosjos -- back-to-back four-speaker champions in 2021 and 2022, including a dominating 16-0 in winning last year’s title -- Rural coach Tim Ellis admits he perhaps tempered expectations for this year’s batch of newcomers.
 
“I tried to set the expectations where this was a season that if we worked and did our best, we could be competitive,” Ellis said. “Our goals shouldn’t necessarily be going in as the favorites to win the state tournament like we were last year. Our focus had to be on progress and growth and getting better.”
 
The shoes to fill were big, but Rural’s new four-speaker combination was up to the challenge. The foursome of seniors Karissa Kromminga and Evander Davis and sophomores Kavi Chidambaranathan and Aditi Nimishakavi kept Rural’s streak alive, winning the Junior Blues’ seventh straight four-speaker title with a 14-2 showing at last weekend’s Class 6A state tournament at Rural.
 
“They just really rose to the occasion and did so much phenomenal research and preparation for state that they were ready to go,” Ellis said. “I really didn’t think about (keeping the streak going) much, but the debaters clearly did. There was a lot of conversation last week about how we’d won so many in a row and they didn’t want to be the ones to snap the streak.
 
“It was an excellent weekend for us. I was just so excited for them to achieve that goal. It was something at the start of the year, it wasn’t something I necessarily thought we could do.”
 
Indeed, throughout the season, Ellis tinkered with his lineup, searching for the right combination that could challenge for another state title.
 
Chidambaranathan and Nimishakavi immediately clicked as a tandem and spent the year together as Rural’s affirmative team. Putting together the negative debate duo was a process. Ellis eventually settled on Kromminga – who had teamed with Lauren Reed to win the two-speaker state title last year – and Davis.
 
“Stylistically, they don’t necessarily match up the same way,” Ellis said. “So they started the season debating with some younger students with the idea that we would be mentoring the next generation of hopefully successful Washburn Rural debaters.”
 
At mid-season, however, he paired the duo and they proceeded to win their first 26 debates.
 
“At that point, we were saying, ‘What were we thinking?’” Ellis said. “Why didn’t we see this sooner?”
 
Kromminga and Davis delivered in a big way at state as well, going undefeated without dropping a ballot. Chidambaranathan and Nimishakavi dropped debates to Shawnee Mission South and Free State during Friday’s Day 1 of competition and going into Saturday’s final day, Rural was 8-2 -- one of three teams with a mark of 8-2 or 7-3 and right in the hunt for the state title.
 
Like Rural, Olathe North was 8-2 at the end of Day 1 and loomed as the Junior Blues’ final-round opponent. So the Junior Blues spent Friday night doing research and preparing an entirely new affirmative case.
 
The extra work paid off as Rural went undefeated on the final day to keep the state title in house. Free State took second at 12-4 with its negative team also going undefeated. Blue Valley West took third at 11-5.
 
“It was definitely satisfying,” Ellis said. “There have been many years where we’ve gone into the state tournament as the clear favorites to win it. This year, it was wide open. There was great competition. Lawrence Free State, Shawnee Mission South, Lawrence, Blue Valley West, Olathe North – there were a lot of schools that had a shot at winning it. We knew we were going to have to debate well and those years are so satisfying to see the kids rise to the occasion.”
 

MCPHERSON REPEATS AS 4A FOUR-SPEAKER CHAMPION
 
The results may suggest otherwise, but McPherson coach Aaron Schopper said having three returning members from last year’s Class 4A four-speaker debate championship team didn’t provide a total advantage in the Bullpups’ quest for back-to-back titles.
 
“If anything, I think it’s a hindrance,” Schopper said. “It actually put a little more pressure on them and allowed them to get into their heads a lot more.”
 
What tipped the scales for senior Payton Hamilton and juniors Lucy Bowman, Sam Houston and Vlad Peters was the understanding of how to use that experience to their benefit. After completing an unbeaten run to a regional title last month, the Bullpups achieved perfection at the state tournament in Wichita, posting a 14-0 record en route to their second consecutive title.
 
“We’ve got a good group that works really hard and understands the game,” said Schopper, who has also led McPherson to 4A state speech titles each of the last two years. “To go undefeated through regionals and then to go undefeated through state was a testament to how hard those kids worked on understanding the content and practicing.”
 
Like last year, Hamilton and Bowman handled affirmative team duties for McPherson. Houston, the third returnee, was joined by Peters on the negative side. Freshman Abilene Frye and sophomore Bryson Archer served as alternates.
 
The Bullpups led a top three that included Paola, which posted a 10-4 showing, and Bishop Miege, which finished third at 9-5.
 
“There is a certain level of confidence, but it wasn’t so much the confidence from their success, they just knew their content. They just knew how to work. That all made the world of difference because there wasn’t an argument that somebody could run that they hadn’t thought out and prepped for, and that all came down to work.”
 

BLUE VALLEY SOUTHWEST ACHIEVES DECADE-LONG STATE TITLE STREAK WITH CLASS 5A SWEEP

Blue Valley Southwest debate head coach Ryan McFarland and his debate students feel the pressure.

McFarland inherited the program and a five-year state title streak from former coach Jared Zuckerman.

“I put a lot of pressure on myself to get the team prepared for this tournament,” McFarland said. “Prior to me getting here, there was a long line of championships and I don’t want to be the one that ends that streak.”

So far, so good.

Blue Valley Southwest has pushed its streak to 10 straight years with a state title in debate. The Timberwolves capped the feat by securing a sweep of the Class 5A state debate competition, winning both the four-speaker and two-speaker state titles for the third time since 2014.

Senior Brett Cranor, senior Vinny Sandhu, junior Amy Lloyd and junior Maggie Howerton won the four-speaker state title with a perfect 14-0 record. Juniors Rishi Shetty and Raghuvamsh Penugonda completed the sweep by winning the two-speaker state title.

“It feels really good,” McFarland said of the state sweep. “I think since I’ve been here we haven’t really had much success in the two-speaker division, so it feels really good personally to finally get over that hump.

“But it also feels good to see basically the whole team have success at the state tournament.”

With that performance, Blue Valley Southwest has won eight straight four-speaker state titles and has won 15 state titles since 2011.

Cranor and Sandhu have led the way through the last three years of the four-speaker state title streak. The duo have been debate partners since their freshman year, although they won their first state title with different partners. 

McFarland said he usually goes with seniors as the negative team at state, but two years ago the Timberwolves' second team for four-speaker was unable to attend. He decided to pair each of Cranor and Sandhu with a senior instead. They followed up by leading the Timberwolves to state titles as the affirmative team during their junior year before taking on neg in this year’s state tournament.

For McFarland, he trusts the duo the same in the aff or neg role.

“I don’t know if they have a clear preference, it’s mostly situational in who they’re debating,” McFarland said. “But they’re ready to go either side. There’s not a side that they’re weaker at.”

McFarland did see a bigger distinction for his other four-speaker pair. He said Lloyd and Howerton, who took fourth together in two-speaker last year, each made big jumps between their sophomore and junior years.

“I think the weaker side for them was being affirmative throughout the year, if we look at most of our losses,” he said. “So just having them be able to walk away with an undefeated record at the state tournament, I think that’s big for them.

“I think not only did it show that they could take that jump skill wise, but also that they finally learned how to prepare effectively and efficiently. That set them up for that success.”

Even with the multiple years of success and that undefeated record at state, one Timberwolf found a negative to their performance. McFarland said Cranor had extra motivation because until late in this year's state competition, he had never lost a single ballot in regional or state tournaments.

“He was pretty upset about that because he wanted to keep the undefeated, no-ballot-lost streak,” he said.

Shetty and Penugonda lead the strong group of Timberwolves teams in the two-speaker field. The duo went 4-2 to reach the octofinal round. They earned a 2-1 judges’ ballot win before earning 3-0 margins in both the quarterfinals and semifinals. With a 2-1 decision over De Soto’s Cael Province and Nicolas Weaver in the finals, Shetty and Penugonda took home the two-speaker state title.

McFarland said that although the program has not had the same success in two-speaker as its had in four-speaker, he went into this season feeling like the team had a great shot performing well at the state tournament. In fact, the team thought they could have done even better.

“I honestly think we kind of underperformed in that division,” McFarland said.

After earlier in the season having four two-speaker teams at a competitive Washburn Rural tournament reach the elimination rounds and advance, McFarland felt like his group had the opportunity for multiple two-speaker teams to reach that stage of the state competition.

“We had another team there that didn't end up making it to the elimination rounds,” McFarland said. “They underperformed, at least to my standards and probably their own standards.”

But with only a handful of seniors in this group, McFarland likes the chances of his program continuing the trend of performing well at state in both four-speaker and two-speaker competitions.

“One thing that I think this year has really done for the program as a whole is it showed the first year students of how to work and what having a good work ethic does for you as a debater,” McFarland said. “We had a finalist at (Sunflower Novice Division of the Kansas Championship Series) as well. Those first-year kids have been at practices with the varsity kids. Having a young team coming back, they’ve seen how the seniors before them have prepared throughout the season. It’s started to trickle down.

“I feel pretty good moving forward.”
 

WICHITA EAST SENIORS WIN 6A TWO-SPEAKER TITLE
 
Twelve years after Wichita East won its first Class 6A two-speaker debate title, seniors Kate Halabi and Esther Liu claimed a second for the Blue Aces.
 
Halabi and Liu won the title Saturday in Topeka. Blue Valley North’s Lizzy Place and Lily Ren finished second, while Free State’s duo of CiCi Hunter and Connor Brown shared third with Shawnee Mission South’s Jeremiah Rimpson and Maddie Augustine.
 
“These students showed well because of their hard work and persistence throughout their entire careers,” East’s second-year coach Parker Mitchell said. “They balance extremely strenuous schedules in the International Baccalaureate program alongside their desire to be at the top level in both the state and the country at debate.”
 
Qualifiers for the Tournament of Champions along with teammates Charlie Hale and Sabarish Ravi, Halabi and Liu maintained consistency throughout the season, a trait that paid dividends at state.
 
“Each weekend they find themselves with a new goal, but a state championship was high on the list,” Mitchell said. “They have a deep passion for the activity of debate and I believe will continue to improve as they finish out their senior season.
 
“Without their strong work ethic and leadership abilities, success for our team would not be possible.”
 

FROM FOUNDATION TO FIRST, SEDGWICK TWO-SPEAKER TEAM WINS 3-2-1A TITLE
 
Three years ago, Gage Giffin was an original member of Sedgwick’s newly formed debate team. Now, he’s a state champion.
 
Giffin, a senior, and junior Kayli Marsteller teamed to win the Class 3-2-1A two-speaker state title Saturday in Wichita. The Cardinals’ closest pursuer was Wichita Collegiate’s team of Ayaan Parikh and William Meyer. Collegiate’s Charles Gentile and Hayan Raffi tied Girard’s Jonah Sandford and Jaxson Robinson for third.
 
“He helped build this program, and it’s only fitting that he gets to end his senior debate season as state champion,” Sedgwick coach Mary Roseberry said of Giffin. “As a junior, Kayli will return to our team next year to help lead and guide our team, just the same as her partner Gage has done.”
  
The opening day of state provided a golden opportunity, and Giffin and Marsteller took advantage of it.
 
“Gage and Kayli set a goal for themselves for state – they wanted to go as far as they could,” Roseberry said. “Leaving on Friday, Gage and Kayli were the No. 1 team, going 3-0, and were above the No. 2-ranked team by speaker points. Saturday morning, they were powermatched against the No. 2 team, and after they won that round, I think that gave them the drive and determination to make it to finals.”
 
Not only to make it, but win and leave a legacy. Giffin and Marsteller were Sedgwick’s lone returnees this season. That came with another opportunity – to strengthen Sedgwick debate for the future.
 
“They both took on leadership roles with our novice students,” Roseberry said. “They both willingly helped the younger students and are a vital part of our team.”
 

CHANUTE DUO BUILDING ‘LEGACY’ WITH BACK-TO-BACK STATE TITLES

When Chanute senior Hannah Furrow and junior Andrew Woods won the Class 4A two-speaker debate state title last year, they achieved something no other Blue Comet had in nearly a century.

This year, they decided to do it again.

Furrow and Woods completed back-to-back state titles in Class 4A two-speaker debate with their win Saturday in Wichita. The Comets duo finished ahead of state runner-up Fort Scott’s Kinsley Davis and Joy Self, earning a 2-1 victory as the affirmative team.

First-year Chanute debate head coach Tim Tarkelly was proud of the duo's performance, although he said he could not take much credit for their success.

“They’re the kind of kids that would’ve gotten this even if I tried to stop them,” Tarkelly said. “They were always doing the work.”

Tarkelly said Furrow and Woods consistently ask him if they can stay another hour after practice.

“It all paid off in the end,” Tarkelly said. “It felt great. We were all very excited. The whole school’s really excited about it.”

Fort Scott’s Cadence Tuck and Regen Wells tied for third with Wellington’s Claire Norris and Rachel Ewing. There was a four-team tie for fourth place: Rock Creek’s Cooper Bittle and Jacob Steeves, Bishop Miege’s Kristina Erskine and Joseph Schmidt, Topeka Hayden’s Reagan Huscher and Chase Blaser and Paola’s Mitchell Ball and Lilia Parks.

With such a competitive field, Furrow and Woods almost missed out on the final rounds altogether.

“They came close to not making it,” Tarkelly said. “Then as soon as they got to finals, just like last year, they tore it apart.

“They love to stress me out, but they’re late-game comeback winners for sure.”

Tarkelly said that ability comes from duo's prepartion. He said they spent all of winter break developing new strategies and coming up with ways to be more competitive at state. Because of that work ethic, Tarkelly said he had “all the confidence in the world,” that Furrow and Woods would finish on top for the second straight year.

He needed that confidence during finals. Tarkelly had to miss the final round to judge in the Class 3-2-1A debate competition.

“As soon as my final round judging was over, I bolted to the room right before they announced how they did,” he said.

The first state title for Furrow and Woods in 2022 prevented McPherson from securing the state sweep after the Bullpups won the four-speaker state title. It was also the first debate state title for Chanute since the Comets won their first in 1927.

Tarkelly, who was an assistant coach for the team last year, said nobody within the program really knew about the historical significance of the first state title for Furrow and Woods before it happened. He said it did not really hit the Comets team until the district honored them after the victory.

“That was a big announcement, like ‘Wow, for the first time since 1927,’” he said.

Tarkelly said that history became a big talking point coming into this season. The team started talking about trying to keep this going.

“Create a legacy for new kids that come in that we can be a part of this team that not only did this, but can do it twice and hopefully do it a third time,” he said.

Woods has already set his sights on accomplishing just that.

“Yeah, he’s been walking around calling it,” Tarkelly said. “He’s like, ‘Next year for the three-peat.’

“It’s a healthy kind of confidence, I think. He’s convinced that he’s going to do it, but I also know that he’s going to put in the work to make that happen.”