Free State is once again the best forensics school in the state, continuing its streak of dominance with a seventh-straight state championship over the weekend.
The Firebirds ended with the second-highest point total in history, second only to the team’s score in 2021, according to head coach Parker Hopkins. The forensics tournament includes multiple speech and debate events, with school point totals collected from individual results.
“This year’s state championship is exceptional,” Hopkins said. “With this year’s title, we have tied the record for consecutive state championships in speech, and, when accounting for the pandemic year without a tournament, surpassed it. This result reflects a sustained legacy.”
Hopkins thanked the team’s assistant coaches, including longtime assistant Michael Shelton, who joined the team in 2013 and had led the team to nearly 20 trophies from state competitions.
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“He deserves more credit than I can give,” Hopkins said.
Hopkins said half of this year’s team was made up of people in their first or second year on the team.
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“They worked incredibly hard with all of the coaches to refine their speeches over the past two weeks,” Hopkins said. “Seniors Breahna Randall, Lena Hasiuk and Landry Koester worked to make sure the younger team members stayed on track, were in a good head space, and locked in to make sure we defended the title.”
Randall claimed a pair of state titles, one in poetry and one in oration. Randall was joined on the podium in oration by Dara Adedipe, who finished second, and Annie Perryman, who finished fifth.
Hasiuk claimed second in United States extemp, with Collette Colvin in fourth.
Koester placed third in informative and prose. Carter Fite was third in international extemp. Aiden Gonzalez reached the top eight in the Lincoln-Douglas debate bracket. Madeline Turner finished fourth in program of oral interpretation. Laura Turner ended up fifth in prose.
Lawrence High’s Miriam Zimmerman also competed at state in oration.
Students from 29 schools competed in the 6A state championships.
Bishop Seabury sent a couple of students to the 1A championships, where Katie Mastrosimone placed fourth in program of oral interpretation. Charlie Maples competed in informative.
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Cuyler Dunn (he/him), a contributor to The Lawrence Times since April 2022, is a recent graduate of the University of Kansas School of Journalism. He is an alum of Lawrence High School, where he was the editor-in-chief of the school’s newspaper, The Budget, and was also named the 2022 Kansas High School Journalist of the Year. Read more of his work for the Times here.
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