Carson High debate team brings home the trophies at final league competition; state tourney next
Submitted by Carson Now Reader on Sat, 02/24/2024 - 12:09pm
Carson High debate wrapped up the regular competition season as Elko High School. This tournament saw 13 schools and 164 individual competitors. Fourteen members of the team advanced to final rounds in speech events.
Ivan Romeo finished 6th in storytelling telling the story of Percy Jackson and the Greek Gods. Emily Tran and Summer McGill finished 4th and 3rd respectively in dramatic interpretation. Summer’s performed “Speak” looking at the trauma caused by sexual assault and Emily performed “Room” where a mother tries to protect her son while a prisoner at home. Duo interpretation saw all 4 Carson pairs advance to finals.
Daisy Jones and Gaberial Crounk placed 4th in novice performing “Toxic Couples” while Ellie Demet and Thomas Lance finished 2nd with “Peabody and Sherman”. Senior Duo partners Kayden Kemp and Zion Brown claimed 6th place performing “Can an Evil Genius Crash on our Couch?”
Chelsea Empeno and Kaden Sa finished 1st place in senior duo performing “The Second Bakery Attacked” Kaden and Chelsea owned the event taking 1st place at every tournament the event was held this season. Nasia Perkins finished 3rd in informative speaking analyzing the human interest in morbid curiosity. In extemporaneous speaking John Fenton finished 3rd and team captain Vivi Castro brought home 1st place.
Carson also brought home trophies in debate events, with 9 members competing in semi or final rounds. Zion Brown finished BQ in second place debating “Belief in the supernatural is incompatible with belief in science.”
Novice Public Forum debate saw Pebble Wiggins and Thomas Lance finish 3rd while Claire Dillon and Alexis Ropp took 1st debating “The US federal government should ban single use plastics”. Senior PF partners Kyle Allen and McKenzie Merrill finished 2nd overall.
Policy debate partners Summer McGill and Nasia Perkins went undefeated to claim 1st place with the topic: The United States 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. Ivan Romeo and Will Hampton placed 10th, Claire Dillon 8th, Alexis Ropp & Emily Tran 7th, McKenzie Merrill 5th, Pebble Wiggins, Makala Heyder, & Nasia Perkins 4th, John Fenton 3rd, Summer McGill 1st in policy and Kyle Allen 1st in public forum.
The Elko tournament awarded sweepstakes bowls for every event and overall standing within the league. Carson claimed 14 bowls this season, the team’s best showing in over 20 years. In speech sweeps Carson finished 2nd overall in Domestic Extemp, Foreign extemp, Oratory, and humorous interpretation. The Carson City team finished 1st in Dramatic Interp, Duo Interp, and Program Oral Interp.
Debate sweeps saw Carson finish 3rd in policy, 2nd in Public Forum, and 2nd in Lincoln Douglas. For overall sweepstake awards Carson took 3rd in speech events, 3rd in debate events, 2nd overall in speaker points, and 3rd in grand sweepstakes for Northern Nevada. The team moves on to the state tournament March 1-2 and then the National Qualifier on March 15.
