The final debate tournament of a season, which began last October, took place this weekend at Columbia City High School as the CHS debaters competed in the North East Indiana District Congress Tournament.

Four spots for a trip to the national tournament were spread out over three chambers of eighteen debaters in congressional debate competition. The tournament was comprised of a Senate, where the top two would qualify, and House A and House B, where in each chamber only the top student would qualify. The students debated for five and half hours and then the judges nominated the top seven and from that top seven secret balloting among the judging panel chose the national qualifiers.

Joining her speech and debate teammates who qualified at earlier tournaments was Kathleen O’Keefe who qualified from House A.

Finalists from Chesterton were Adam Potrzebowski, third in House A; Manhar Grewal , fourth in House A; Kira Geairn, fifth in House A; Kailey Paglia, sixth in House B; and Luke Morgan, seventh in House B.

Also competing for CHS were Aris Ringas, Tristen Comegys, Erika Mihalek, Jeff Tucker, Ankur Chawla, Dan Leopold, Syed Shah, Kelsi Coslet, and Chasity Mottinger.

Posted 3/18/2008