The Great Bend High School Speech and Debate Team had an outstanding showing at the National Qualifying Student Congress Tournament at Newton High School on March 8.  

The tournament hosted ten West Kansas District schools with competitors of all Kansas school classifications mixed together. The Great Bend team’s combined scores earned them the distinction of third place behind Hutchinson and Salina South.  A field of 55 students debated in the mock Congress with the goal of qualifying for the NSDA National Speech and Debate Tournament in Des Moines, Iowa this June. The Panthers came away with one qualifier. Senior Milena Carbajel qualified to represent West Kansas in the House of Representatives. In addition, Senior Chrisangel Adame was second alternate for National Qualification in Congressional Senate Debate after a strong Congress performance. 

Freshman Parker Coleman and sophomore Quinton Heath were finalists in the Supersession of the House of Representatives. Underclassmen Rhys Froetschner and Hunter McClanahan also had a good showing in the House with several excellent speech scores.  

The Panther Forensics team will have one more opportunity next month to qualify additional students to compete with the best in the nation. The West Kansas district national qualifier for individual speech events will take place the third weekend in April.  This will be the 40th overall year the team has qualified students for the national meet.

Head Coach Kim Heath was extremely proud of the GBHS team. “These students spend so much time and work so hard to prepare for their debates,” said Heath. “It is a privilege to work with every one of our students, and these debaters all demonstrated so much personal and skill growth since the beginning of the season way back in September.” she added.

Great Bend Forensics 2nd place at large Manhattan Tournament

A set of five varsity forensics students won the 2nd place team sweepstakes trophy at Manhattan High last Saturday finishing behind Lawerence Free State.  

The team was led by Seniors Carbajal and Adame. Carbajal placed seventh in Poetry, first in Program of Oral Interpretation, first in Dramatic Interpretation and first in Duo Interpretation with Junior Darcy Feist. Adame placed 2nd in Impromptu speaking, 5th in Informative speaking and 7th in Prose Interpretation.

In addition to the first place in Duo Interpretation, Feist also earned a 2nd place medal in Original Oratory and a 3rd place award in Program of Oral Interpretation.

Another Junior Reese King placed 3rd in Informative speaking and 5th in Oratory.  The only Sophomore on the team Zachary Hart finished 6th in Humorous Interpretation.  

Heath said, “The fact that five students were able to gain enough points to place in the team sweepstakes shows how talented these students are in a variety of competitive events. Their commitment to constantly improving is commendable and forms the foundation of our team. With the second half of the forensics season looming just ahead, I’m excited to see how far this team can go,”

While the varsity was at Manhattan, a young group of Panther forensics students competed at Clay Center. Parker Coleman earned a 4th Place award in Extemporaneous Speaking. Hunter McClanahan was 7th in Informative and Kaitlyn Froetschner was 7th in Original Oratory.   

Next up, the team will stay close to home for a few invitationals. Most of the Panther Forensics team will compete at either Hays or Hoisington when the students return from Spring Break.