This past weekend in Watertown, the Lennox Speech and Debate team competed in the State “A” tournament. The team, made up of five seniors, two juniors, and one sophomore, ended the tournament with several individual places and a second place in team sweepstakes award.
In Lincoln-Douglas debate, Lennox featured junior Nathan Waltjer and senior Maxwell Bultena. Both debaters went through several tough challengers and ended the tournament on top. They were both named co-champions in the event after they both won two very tough semi-final rounds against Spearfish and Tea Area.
In public forum debate, Marcus Metivier and Joseph Meyer ended up as quarter-finalists. They lost to the eventual state champion from Spearfish. Sarah Kroeger and Santana Kitson also competed in public forum debate and ended with a 1-2 record. The losses came to the state runner-up and the state champions.
On the individual events side, five of the six entries made it to finals. In original oratory, Santana Kitson placed sixth and Portia Bird placed fifth. In domestic extemporaneous speaking, Nathan Waltjer placed fifth.
The highlight was in international extemporaneous speaking. Max Bultena placed second in the event, and Aidan Sanchez took first place and is the state champion in the “A” division.
“I am very proud of these students and what they were able to accomplish. The state debate tournament is always one that has unexpected results. All you can do is prepare as much as possible and give it your best shot,” stated coach Michael Larson. “The hard worked paid off. I am happy to see several of the goals pay off. I know that both Max and Nathan wanted to close out in Lincoln-Douglas and they did! That is the first time LHS has closed out an event. Max and Aidan also talked about trying to be the one and two in international and that paid off. It was a good feeling after a long season of practices and competition. I am thankful for the all the parental support, the community support, school support, and a huge thank you to assistant coach Brady Jandl.”