The Manhattan High forensics team has been competing over the past few weeks qualifying 14 students in scene events for Nationals that will be held in Des Moines, Iowa, June 15-20. 

In the Public Forum Debate the team qualified two students, sophomores Natalia Buffington and Savannah Harvey.

Juniors Emeon Streetman and Cameron Williams qualified in the Lincoln Douglas Debate.

In the Big Questions Debate, sophomore Eli Streetman qualified along with senior Patrick Fu who qualified for the fourth straight year.

“I’ve been doing this in freshman year, it’s been, like, a lot of hard work,” Fu said. “I built my debate skills, you know, for like, the past four years. So it’s been a lot.”

The team qualified three students, senior Kennedy Crabtree, junior Ayla Price and sophomore Lauren Day in the Student Congress competition.

In Informative Speaking, junior Wyatt Adams and senior Willow Graves qualified.

Junior Zoey Broda along with senior Savannah Price qualified in the Original Oratory competition.

Finishing out the qualifiers is senior Jamen Trojcak who qualified in International Extemporaneous Speaking.

Now the team will have time to prepare for Nationals in the upcoming months.

“For nationals from now on is just more preparation for the case, building my net, my affirmation that case for why creativity is more important and for why intelligence is more important,” Fu said. ”From then on, it’s just filling out my case and then practicing with practice debates and that’s about it.”