“Move fast and break things,” says the quote written on the small whiteboard on the busy wall of room E-139, more commonly known as the debate and forensics room.

Manhattan High forensics is certainty doing just that.

It’s week two of the forensics season, and MHS is moving in on the competition fast and breaking personal records, placing third overall at the Emporia High Invitational Saturday. The team attained four more state qualifications in the early season, bumping them up to a cumulative amount of 7 — nearly half of the amount allowed before the team has maxed out in possible qualifications.

“It’s nice to see that we’re actually getting out the effort that we’ve put in,” junior Peyton Woods said. “This year it’s more of a confidence boost… it shows that we are doing things correctly and that we can continue this track.”

Woods, along with his Forensics partner, junior Ivy Auletti, placed first in Duo Acting, qualifying for state. This follows the pair’s second-place win last week in the same category, which also qualified them for state.

Junior Trinity Brockman took second in Program of Oral Interpretation and in Domestic Extemporaneous Speaking, qualifying for state in both.

Sophomore Crysteen Brown took second in Original Oration and also qualified for state.

“I didn’t even expect to get [second place]… I was just kind of surprised in general,” Brown said. “Qualifying for state means that the hard work put in paid off and I can even try to qualify for nationals.”

Freshman Sam Delong, who took first place in the Novice Congress session and third in International Extemporaneous Speaking Jan. 26, took second in Poetry Saturday, qualifying for state despite the fact Poetry is not technically a qualification for 5A/6A schools.

Other successes came from sophomore Eszter Chikan, who took fourth in Informative Speaking; sophomore Kay Jay Jones, who took fifth in Original Oration and 3rd in Impromptu Speaking; junior Will Bannister, who took fifth in International Extemporaneous Speaking; and junior Dominykas Metlevski, who took third in Informative Speaking.

“At the end of the semester, when we’re picking the state team, I want it to be a very difficult decision because there are so many deserving students,” head coach Mac Phrommany said. “That is my goal: max out and the some, and make it the most difficult possible decision to pick the top 16.”

Forensics will head to Blue Valley North on Friday.