After competing in 17 tournaments, the Lawrence High debate squad compiled a 390-286 record. An 18th tournament remained, but this time, the debaters hosted the event.

   Junior chairman Paul Meissbach and senior judge’s chairman Jordan Payne were given the monumental task of organizing over 300 people over the course of Dec. 4 and 5.

   “It is extremely stressful to organize all 168 judges,” Payne said. “The Friday before the tournament, I accidentally deleted my entire database of the judges.”

   Scrambling to recover from this mistake, Payne recreated her entire database, including which rounds each judge was scheduled for, by the Tuesday prior to the tournament.

   “Jordan and I have to organize judges for every room in the school for five rounds, in addition to 142 two person teams,” Meissbach said. “It takes an incredible amount of patience and a lot of time to organize.”

   Fortunately, Meissbach and Payne had cultivated their organization skills throughout the course of the season. To debate, evidence must be present to back up arguments. All of this critical evidence is stored in folders within boxes.

   “My box is extremely important, I don’t know what I would do without it,” junior Nicole Burkhart said.

   With her evidence in tow, she has a record of 22-11 this year while debating with senior Carlee Herman and sophomore Lauren Barr in the novice division. Payne and Meissbach debate in the tougher open division with their partners. Payne has debated with Meissbach, Herman and junior Molly Olson-Kelly.

   “I’ve had a really good year,” Meissbach said. “I am 23-11 while debating with Jordan Payne and [junior] Mariah Schwager. Of the seven tournaments I have competed in, I have medaled in five of them.”

   Besides debating competitively on the weekends, debaters hone their skills during the week in class and also on Wednesday night work nights for the duration of the season.

“Basically, I try to fill gaps,” Debate coach Jeff Plinsky said. “Whatever they don’t do well, we isolate and practice to improve. Most of our work is filling in gaps in our knowledge.”

   By bolstering the weaker areas of their arguments, debaters can be more successful. Additionally, debate tandems practice both sides of the argument against each other. That way, the team is well-prepared for the tournament.

   “The initial constructive speeches, where each side builds their position, have a maximum time limit of 8 minutes,” Plinsky said. “They are followed by 3 minute long cross-examination periods. At the end, each Debater gets a 5 minute long rebuttal speech.”

   After the speeches run their course, judges vote on which argument was stronger and give each debater a score.

This scale is from one to four, with one being the best and four being the worst. Each debater keeps track of their average score which is factored into determining the Debater of the Year award.