The Lennox Speech team competed at the National Qualifying tournament at Harrisburg High School this past weekend. Gunnar Geiken qualified in Lincoln-Douglas to the National Tournament being held in Des Moines this June.
This is the fourth time Geiken has qualified to the National Tournament and is the first Lennox student to accomplish this rare feat.
Geiken’s first national tournament was online due to Covid-19 restrictions. He has participated at the national tournaments in Kentucky, Arizona, and this year in Iowa.
“It was great to see all of Gunnar’s hard work this year payoff to allow him to finish as one of the top two in our incredibly difficult tournament,” stated coach Mike Larson.
With coaching from Brady Jandl and Mike Larson, Geiken navigated through seven rounds of debate against competitors from Aberdeen, Watertown, Brookings, Milbank, and Huron in attendance.
Maddigan VanSickle ended the tournament as the second alternate in humorous interp.
Several other Lennox students competed and did well in the meet.
Others competing were McKenzie Ritenour in Lincoln-Douglas, Alek Kilene in POI, Gavin Sweir in informative, Emersen Lee in public forum debate with Maddigan, and Madix Havard in domestic extemp.
The Lennox team still has one more debate competition for which to prepare. They will have their State Tournament in Watertown on March 1 and 2. They also have a national qualifying tournament in student congress.
The National Tournament will be held June 16-24 in Des Moines. At the National Tournament, Geiken will be recognized with other students that are four year qualifiers at the National Tournament.