Weather complicates forensics tournament

Kaitlin Clark, Entertainment Editor

It was an unfortunate weekend for the Manhattan High Forensics team as they competed in the Topeka High PFD Tournament. Due to inclement weather, the team was only able to stay for half of the tournament, therefore not receiving scores and rankings.

Several pairs felt that if it weren’t for the weather, they may have done well.

“I think we were performing pretty well, a lot better than last week,” sophomore Megan Keenan said. “I feel like we definitely had a shot at placing, so it kind of sucks that the weather got in the way.”

The Manhattan High team faced a few challenges before leaving the tournament early, including organization.

“Well, we could have done better with having our evidence nice and neat before we went to the tournament, but it worked out fine,” sophomore Alison Payne said.

Pairs competed in public forum debate, hence the name of the tournament. For some competitors, this was a fairly new event for them.

“[PFD] was kind of confusing at first because it’s a lot different than policy, but it makes the rounds go a lot faster because the speeches aren’t as long,” Keenan said.

This week, several team members will be competing at the national qualifiers tournament on Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturday. Keenan, Payne, sophomores Will Bannister, Trinity Brockman, Caden Hickel, Tanya Singh, freshmen Crysteen Brown and Eadon Marstall will be attending.

The team is hopeful going into the larger tournament after their preparations.

“We’re coming up with constructive speeches now and putting together more evidence [in preparation for national qualifiers],” Payne said.