On February 19, LM’s speech and debate team made their way to Harriton High School to compete–and excel–at speech and debate districts. Throughout the various forms of debate, LM had two teams win within their categories and qualify for a state competition at Bloomsburg College. Two teams qualified for debate in different forms. Within Lincoln-Douglas, Nuala Kling ’28 beat out her competition, and within Public Forum, Alexia Dragut ’29 and Vivian Haggerty ’29 won as partners.
“I’m excited to go to states this year,” Kling explains. “I’m excited to see new people and their new styles of debating.” Kling debates within Lincoln-Douglas, which focuses heavily on philosophy and ethics. It is a solo form of debate, with each team only having one person. Kling joined the debate team her freshman year, and quickly asserted herself as a strong debater, willing to learn from experienced competitors and apply her knowledge and skills against her competitors. After putting in countless hours to prepare her arguments, prepare rebuttals, and researching, Kling had no doubt that she would succeed at Harriton. And despite this being her first state competition, Kling already mentions: “I’m hoping that I can go again next year, and when I’m an upperclassman that I can help out the newer people on the team.”
LM Debate’s success continued in the Public Forum, with Dragut and Haggerty qualifying for the state championship as well. The equally hungry, younger partnership has accomplished success not only throughout the season, but performed at an exceptional level at the district competition. When asked about her goals, Haggerty asserted, “Our goal for states is to do our best, and to be exposed to serious, high level competition. We want to be challenged. No matter what, even if things don’t go our way, this will be a great opportunity to see some high level competition and work on our own skills.” Dragut shares a similar resolve, and adds, “I’m so grateful that Vivian and I were able to come as far as we have, so our goal for the rest of the year is to see how far we can take it.” Since joining the debate team this year, Dragut explains that the rest of the team “has been a great support for us. The meetings at the beginning of the year really set us up to have a good season.” Starting on a junior varsity level, then working their way up to varsity scrimmages and tournaments, the duo has grown quickly within their style of debate, and Haggerty affirms the duo’s chemistry by stating, “once I’m in a debate, everything just clicks, and I can see the work my partner and I put in actually play out.”
Leading up to the state competition, both teams are voraciously preparing their arguments and hoping to succeed, unphased by the increased level of competition.
