The Manhattan High Forensics team had several students place in the top six of their category at the Olathe North East Tournament. The tournament was competed by the students live compared to previous tournaments that were done through recordings.

“We had a lot of people make it out of the [preliminary] rounds into finals,” head coach Mac Phrommany said.

Freshman Andrew Hutchinson competed in Humorous Interpretation and Impromptu Speaking, placing sixth in Humorous Interpretation. Hutchinson prefers the live performances over the video submissions.

“[The] anticipation and the competition is more fun when you have to perform every time and keep up the work,” Hutchinson said.

Hutchinson plans to “recut” his piece to improve his performance at future tournaments.

“It might be a while until I go to my next tournament,” Hutchinson said, “but hopefully in the near future, I can get a state call.”

Junior Abdullah Rasheed placed first in Lincoln Douglas Debate. Sophomore Greyson Hickel placed sixth in his Congressional House in Congressional Debate. Senior Crysteen Brown competed in Original Oratory and Impromptu Speaking, placing sixth in Original Oratory.

Freshman Kate Ward competed in Poetry and Impromptu Speaking, placing fourth in Poetry. Freshmen Paige Shurtz and Jordyn West competed in both Informative and Impromptu Speaking.

Freshman Allie Cloyd competed in Prose. Sophomore JB Brock competed in Lincoln Douglas Debate, Poetry, Impromptu Speaking, and Domestic Extemporaneous Speaking.

Many students expressed that they enjoyed the live performances over the video submissions.

“I definitely want to continue to have more live performances and just find tournaments that do live performances instead of video submission,” Phrommany said.

The Forensics team will meet again this weekend at the McPherson Invitational Tournament.