Even after a long and relaxing spring break, the Manhattan High School Forensics students continues to show off their best skills and work.

To start, this past weekend the team made their way up to Seaman High School to compete in a relatively small tournament with only five MHS students attending. These small numbers didn’t stop the team from giving it their all though. Senior Victoria Arnold found herself qualifying for final rounds in not one, not two, but three events. Arnold participated in Informative, Info10, and Poetry Interpretation.

“I was shocked and excited,” Arnold said. “When I found out I broke into out rounds for all three, I was really nervous, but excited too.”

Along with the recent tournament, Forensics students have found themselves with a rather honorable role. This week, the MHS team will be hosting the national qualifying congress tournament.

“It means a lot because it shows that other regional schools trust us to run the tournament,” junior Lily Colburn said. “It’s been three years since we’ve hosted a national qualifying tournament.”

Regional students who have qualified to nationals for congress will come and compete at this tournament today and tomorrow. The top three debaters will then be able to compete in National Speech and Debate Association’s tournament in June, hosted in Birmingham, Alabama.

While it has been a few years since the MHS forensics team has hosted a national qualifying tournament, the team is not at all unfamiliar with the concept of hosting a tournament in general. During spring break, MHS held its home tournament which resulted in a large turnout and students from all over the region.

“We had a few hiccups, but overall it went pretty well,” junior Martina Hernandez said.