By Julie Johansen
On Saturday, Feb. 26, the Emery High debate team captured region honors. The competition was hosted at Carbon High with five teams competing, including Carbon, Richfield, Canyon View, Grand and Emery.
The competition was an all day event and each debater completed three rounds against different opponents and scored speaker points in addition to a win or loss record. Their scores were then averaged out for rankings at the end of the tournament. Novice and varsity debaters are pitted against each other at the competition; novice debaters are students who just made the team this year, while varsity debaters are ones that are competing for their second through fourth year.
Emery’s results were as follows:
Student Congress Debate: Jorgen Robinson (Novice), 3rd place; Tyler Frandsen (Novice), 6th place.
Lincoln Douglas Debate: Kelsey Thomas (Varsity), 5th place; Courtney Behling (Novice), 6th place. The topic for the Lincoln Douglas Debate was “Resolved: In a democracy, a free press ought to prioritize objectively over advocacy.”
Policy Debate: Alexander Frederick and Zayne Perea (Varsity), 1st place; Haylie McArthur and Deri Thatcher (Varsity), 3rd place. The topic was “Resolved: The United States federal government should substantially increase its protection of water resources in the United States.”
Public Forum Debate: Trayce Justesen and Calypso Mason (Novice), 1st place (undefeated in their debates); Kylee Willis and Kallee Lake (Novice), 3rd place; Derek Canteberry and Natalie Pace (Novice), 4th place. The topic for Public Forum was “Resolved: In the United States, the benefits of increasing organic agriculture outweigh the harms.”
Foreign Extemporaneous Speaking : Haylie McArthur (Varsity), 1st place; Zayne Pereas (Varsity), 3rd place; Jorgen Robinson (Novice), 4th place.
National Extemporaneous Speaking : Alexander Frederick (Varsity), 1st place, Kelsey Thomas (Varsity), 3rd place; Trayce Justesen (Novice), 5th place.
Impromptu Speaking: Kallee Lake (Novice), 4th place; Natalie Pace (Novice), 6th place.
Humorous and Dramatic Interpretations: Michael Wickman (Novice), 3rd place; Haivyn Pitchforth (Novice), 4th place.
Emery High debate coach Katherine DeBry expressed how proud she was of these students. They will represent Emery High at the 3A state competition at Salem Hills High School on March 18 and 19.