Twenty District 196 Students Qualify for State Debate Tournament

Editor's Note: The following is a news release from Rosemount, Apple Valley Eagan School District 196.

Twenty District 196 high school students had top finishes at the Section 3 debate tournament Jan. 4-5 and qualified to compete at the State Debate Tournament, which will be held Jan. 18-19 at the University of Minnesota.

District 196 students swept all six qualifying spots in Lincoln-Douglas debate. Miriam Kelberg of Apple Valley High School finished first in Lincoln-Douglas debate, followed by Ryan Lowder and Nurry Goren of Eagan High School, Kezia Jenkins of Apple Valley, and Anant Naik and Nikhil Venkatasubramanian of Eastview High School.

This year’s Lincoln-Douglas resolution is, “Resolved: Rehabilitation ought to be valued above retribution in the United States criminal justice system.”

In policy debate, District 196 students took two of the five state-qualifying spots, including the Eagan team of Kathryn Bulanek and Kelsey Maher, and Andrew Hanson and Wesley Just of Rosemount High School. In policy debate, each two-student team defends both sides of a selected topic during the tournament.

This year’s policy resolution is, “Resolved: The United States federal government should substantially increase its transportation infrastructure investment in the United States.”

In public forum debate, five of the six qualifying spots went to District 196 students, including section champions Lindsey Wanberg and Ryan McGuire of Eastview, Ian Haave and Patrick Jurney of Eastview, Maxwell Minsker and Sophie Callahan of Eagan, Mollie Clark and Alexandra Rosati of Eagan, and Nitya Chandiramani and Rand Silvers of Apple Valley.

This year’s public forum resolution is, “Resolved: On balance, the Supreme Court decision in Citizens United vs. Federal Election Commission harms the election process.”

The head coaches for debate in District 196 are Pam Wycoff of Apple Valley, Chris McDonald of Eagan, Todd Hering of Eastview and Cort Sylvester of Rosemount.

This will be the 112th annual State Debate Tournament, the longest-running event of the Minnesota State High School League.