As the debate season goes on, the Manhattan High Varsity team grows strong.

On Oct. 2, debaters traveled to Olathe Northwest to compete in one of the toughest Debate Coaches Invitational (DCI) tournaments on the Kansas Circuit.

“I was pretty confident in my ability to beat whoever I was up against,” senior Nathan McClendon said. “I mean, it paid off, like, because of hard work and preparation.”

Although Manhattan as a whole did not place, the improvised team of McClendon and sophomore Lily Colburn ranked first out of all others.

“I was definitely really excited about it; I’ve never gotten first place at a debate tournament,” Colburn said.

Only having one week to prepare for the tournament, Colburn and McClendon spent most of their time working to succeed as a pair.

“I was with a different partner than I usually am, so I was pretty nervous about the tournament,” Colburn said. “We did two practice debates against other teams from our school to prepare for it, then we went after school most days in the week, last week, to prepare and research.”

Despite their short amount of time to practice for the tournament, McClendon and Colburn’s hard work showed clearly.

“We worked well together, and we provided a sort of, like, a good balance as a team I think,” McClendon said. “I would just be radical and [Colburn] would be rational and then it’s like, yin and yang. It worked out well.”

Compared to the previous tournament that the team competed in two weeks ago, MHS debaters are clearly showing great improvement.

“As a whole I think we did better, this was definitely a different type of tournament than the one we went to two weekends ago,” Colburn said. “I think we did better, I think most people were more confident going into it since it was everyone’s second tournament.”