HOISINGTON — Over the past two weeks, Hoisington High School Debate Team members have been on the road, traveling first to Great Bend and then to Lyons to compete against area high school and campus teams. The team members continue to place high. Novices are making strides and taking points while new varsity members gain confidence at new levels.

Hoisington 2nd and 3rd at Great Bend

The Cardinal team did well at Great Bend recently. In the novice division, Miquala Purscell and Victoria Luttrell went 4-1 with 18 speaker points and placed second. They missed first place by one speaker point. They defeated two teams from Ulysses and two teams from Garden City. They lost to a Valley Center team.

In the open (varsity) division, Garrett Dykes and Payton Dykes – debating for his first time ever – went 4-1, with 20 speaker points, and placed third. They missed second by one speaker point, and first by three speaker points. They defeated two McPherson teams, a Dodge City team and a Valley Center team. They lost to another Dodge City team that placed second. Trevan Brown was the alternate.

Hoisington originally had three teams competing, but an ill student forced them to drop one team. With only two teams competing, Hoisington wasn’t eligible for sweepstakes, but their eight wins would have been enough to put them in second or third overall (out of eight schools).

In other action, several members of the team, including Trevan Brown, Samantha Colson, Garrett Dykes, Payton Dykes, Audrie Harms, Victoria Luttrell, Kylie Miller and Miquala Purscell, attended the annual debate workshop put on by the philosophy department at Fort Hays State University.

Hoisington 5th at Lyons

The team did well Saturday, Oct. 13, at Lyons. In the novice division, Victoria Luttrell and Tyler Reif earned a 4-1 record and placed fifth out of 37 teams. They defeated two Campus teams and teams from Buhler and Blue Valley Northwest. Their only loss was to the first-place Great Bend team.

In the open (varsity) division, Garrett Dykes and Payton Dykes went 3-2 and finished 13th out of 40 teams. They defeated teams from Ellinwood, Hutchinson and Campus. They lost to a different Campus team and the fourth place TMP-Marian team. Logan Hammeke and Kylie Miller also competed in the open division.

Audrie Harms was the alternate.