After much preparation and practice, the Manhattan High School forensics team made an impression at their first tournament of the semester at Washburn Rural High School, breaking through with 11 students placing in the finals. While the first tournament is a place to set the bar, students see it as a way of getting a good start and observing their competition.

“The first tournament is always everyone getting their feet on the ground, seeing what everything’s going to be like,” senior Sean McGimpsey said. “The first tournament is always kind of hit or miss.”

This year’s forensics team mainly consists of novices, or new forensics team members, but they still managed to place in several events. Juniors Martina Hernandez placed in third in humorous interpretation, Lily Colburn placed third in impromptu speaking and first in international extemporaneous, and Micah Wiggins placed sixth in original oratory. Freshmen Trinity Brockman placed third and Caden Hickle placed sixth in J.V. domestic extemporaneous, Ivy Auletti placed fourth in J.V. dramatic interpretation, and Mekaila Rickert placed sixth in prose interpretation. Finally, in J.V. international extemporaneous, freshmen Megan Keenan placed first, Will Bannister placed second, and Anna Poggi-Corradini placed sixth.

On Friday night freshmen Bannister and Cameron Marshall competed in and received first place in the public forum debate, while Brockman and Auletti took second in PFD.

“Out of the 20 or so people we took, 11 of them broke,” McGimpsey said. “We did really well for the first tournament.”

While competition continued on Saturday at Washburn Rural, three students went to a separate meet at Emporia High School. Senior Kriya Newfield, sophomore Blaise Hayden and freshman Jacob Grace opened their seasons at a smaller meet, where Newfield earned fifth in poetry and sixth in prose.

While the competition can prove to be intimidating to some, the forensics team finds what they to do to be a creative and fun way of expressing themselves and what they’re passionate about. From prose pieces to 10-minute speeches, each student finds a way to express themselves. From political views from just wanting to make people laugh, forensics has events for everyone.

“I think it’s really fun, it’s a good creative outlet,” Newfield said. “You can still have a competitive outlet too, so that’s fun.”