Air temperatures below zero and a threat of snow didn’t stop the Spartan debate teams from waiting out in the cold the morning of the state debate tournament. Held Jan. 12-13 at the University of Minnesota, Cerena Karmaliani and debate partner Henry Hilton, as well as duo David Schumacher and Henry Choi competed against a total of seven different schools and climbed up to semi-finals.

“I like state more than most of the tournaments we do, because, for one, it’s at the U of M, which is cool, and also it’s just a smaller tournament, so there’s just way less people so it’s less overwhelming,” Schumacher said. “Also, the teams there are generally better so the rounds are more interesting immediately.”

After coming in first and second place respectively and dominating in sections, the teams advanced to the state Public Forum debate tournament.

Although the state tournament may sound like a daunting event, all four of the debaters headed to the tournament had previously competed at state in their past years, and some were also a part of teams that competed at the national debate tournament in 2023. On top of that, they have also been regularly attending debate tournaments over the years, so their experience overpowered any lingering nerves.

Gallery • 5 Photos

Zimo Xie

SHARP CONCENTRATION. Junior Cerena Karmaliani and senior Henry Hilton both intensely watch the opposing Lakeville North team as they give their rebuttals. Karmaliani and Hilton takes note of what the other team says while they listen in order to find ways to defend their arguments next.

On the first day of tournaments, the Spartan teams debated four separate rounds starting from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m. In tournaments with fewer teams competing, like this one, elimination rounds will not commence until the quarterfinals, and until then, the teams only need to win four out of six preliminary rounds to qualify for the quarterfinals.

Judge Alex Smith, who voted for Karmaliani and Hilton in their second round, said, “They [SPA] were going up against an abortion argument, and I think this was my second round that I judged, so I hadn’t heard good responses against that contention yet, but they were the first team that had seven responses or something ridiculous against it…So that stood out.”

With Karmaliani and Hilton securing four out of six rounds in preliminaries and Choi and Schumacher seizing five out of six rounds, both Spartan debate teams were able to advance to the quarterfinals on the second day of the tournament.

However, in the quarterfinals, Karmaliani and Hilton were unable to fully respond to the arguments laid out by Lakeville North later in their round, resulting in their loss of 2-1 due to dropping the technicalities determined by the judges.

Meanwhile, down the hall in room 225, team Choi and Schumacher had just received news of their victory against Wayzata. After coming out of the room they had finished debating in, the rest of their team and their debate coaches, Marit Warren and McKenna Shaw, hurried to congratulate them on their success and prepared to head out to lunch.

As a typical day at a debate tournament progresses, more judges will usually be present, and the state tournament was no different. In the afternoon, the semi-finals kicked off with Choi and Schumacher debating against a Blake team with five judges in the room. The debate against Blake lasted a little more than an hour. Around the halfway point, the Spartan team became tangled up in the opposing team’s contention on political polarization.

In the second half of the debate, Choi and Schumacher brought up many points to contest the Blake team’s arguments. Ultimately, the Spartans succumbed to Blake’s polarization contention after being unable to give complete responses to defend their case. The debate concluded in a loss of 5-0 for the Spartans.

After spectating the semi-final round, Karmaliani said, “I think it’s disappointing, but I understand it’s been a long day, and I think the ballot could have gone either way…it just ends up being who was an effective communicator towards the end.”

Though it may seem that this final round would mark the end of the debate tournament season for the teams, they aren’t done yet. Choi and Schumacher will compete at nationals for Public Forum debate along with Karmaliani and Hilton for extemporaneous debate. Karmaliani and Hilton are dual qualifiers, as alternates for Public Forum.

The National Speech and Debate tournament will be held in Iowa June 16-21.