The Manhattan High Debate team had two pairs make it to double octofinals and quarterfinals at the 4-Speaker State tournament on Jan. 15.

“I would like to just give a shout out to some of the novices that competed,” senior Megan Long said. “We had two first-year debaters competing that broke into double octofinals, and that is just wildly impressive for first-year debaters.”

Long and senior Sam DeLong were quarterfinalists in the competition.

“I was glad that I got to compete with a friend of mine and a person that I was partners with my freshman year so it was kind of full circle,” DeLong said.

Although competing is stressful for some students, this tournament was particularly stressful for other reasons.

“It was stressful with all of the COVID stuff going on,” senior Megan Long said. “There were a lot of people in one building and just a lot of interacting with people from all different parts of the state.”

Since Long is a senior, this was her final debate tournament.

“I’m pretty sad,” Long said. “Debate was a huge part of high school, it was a huge part of high school for me and it’s a really cool little community to have going on. I’m really [going to] miss it.”

DeLong also has a similar experience with this being his final tournament.

“It’s bittersweet. I know that I have forensics season still, so it’s not like it’s my end of the activity and I don’t know if I’ll compete in college yet,” DeLong said. “But it’s definitely, yeah, it’s just weird knowing it’s ending but I’ll sort through those feelings.”