Carson High School’s debate team ended its competitive season at Elko High School and moves on to the state tournament March 1 and 2, then the National Qualifier on March 15.
Carson High School debate wrapped up the regular competition season at Elko High School with 13 schools and 164 individual competitors. The team advanced into final rounds in 9 out of 10 events and 14 members advanced to final rounds in speech events.
Ivan Romeo finished sixth in storytelling telling the story of Percy Jackson and the Greek gods. Emily Tran and Summer McGill finished fourth and third respectively in dramatic interpretation. McGill performed “Speak” looking at the trauma caused by sexual assault and Tran performed “Room” in which a mother tries to protect her son while a prisoner at home.
Duo interpretation saw all four Carson pairs advance to finals. Daisy Jones and Gabe Crounk placed fourth in novice performing “Toxic Couples” while Ellie Demet and Thomas Lance finished second with “Peabody and Sherman.” Senior duo partners Kayden Kemp and Zion Brown claimed sixth place performing “Can an Evil Genius Crash on our Couch?” Chelsea Empeno and Kaden Sa finished first place in senior duo performing “The Second Bakery Attacked.”
Sa and Empeno took first at every tournament the event was held this season. Nasia Perkins finished third in informative speaking analyzing the human interest in morbid curiosity. In extemporaneous speaking, John Fenton finished third and team captain Vivi Castro brought home first.
Carson also brought home trophies in debate events, with nine members competing in semi or final rounds. Brown finished Big Questions in second place debating “Belief in the supernatural is incompatible with belief in science.” The Novice Public Forum debate saw Pebble Wiggins and Thomas Lance finish third while Claire Dillon and Alexis Ropp took first debating, “The U.S. federal government should ban single use plastics.” Senior Public Forum partners Kyle Allen and McKenzie Merrill finished second overall. Policy debate partners McGill and Perkins went undefeated to claim first place with the topic, “The U.S. federal government should substantially increase fiscal redistribution in the United States by adopting a federal jobs guarantee, expanding Social Security, and/or providing a basic income.”
Carson debaters also claimed multiple top speaker ranks for their overall presentation in rounds. Romeo and Will Hampton placed 10th, Dillon eighth, Alexis Ropp and Tran seventh, Merrill fifth, Wiggins, Makala Heyder and Perkins fourth, John Fenton third, McGill first in policy and Allen first in public forum.
The Elko tournament also awarded sweepstakes bowls for every event and overall standing within the league. Carson claimed 14 bowls this season, the team’s best showing in more than 20 years. In speech sweeps, Carson finished second overall in Domestic Extemporaneous, Foreign Extemporaneous, Oratory and humorous interpretation. The Carson team finished first in Dramatic Interpretation, Duo Interpretation and Program Oral Interpretation. Debate sweeps saw Carson finish third in policy, second in public forum and second in Lincoln-Douglas.
For overall sweepstake awards, Carson took third in speech events, third in debate events, second overall in speaker points and third in grand sweepstakes for Northern Nevada.
The team moves on to the state tournament March 1 and 2 and then the National Qualifier on March 15.