Debate had their first tournament on Sept. 16 and freshmen Annabelle Owens and her partner placed third in the novice tournament. This was Annabelle’s first time participating in a Debate tournament for Olathe West.
So far, Owens says her season has had a great start.
“It’s been going really well,” Owens said. “It was super confusing at first, but now it kinda makes sense and I’ve gone to a lot of tournaments at this point, so I feel pretty good. It’s been really fun.”
Not only have she and her partner been successful at the first tournament, but they have also placed highly in others this year as well.
Owens says that her tournaments have gone well.
“They’ve all gone really well,” Owens said. “I’ve placed third in all of them which is kinda crazy to me. I didn’t expect that and even if I don’t win it’s still really fun. I just find tournaments to be the most fun even if I don’t win everything.”
There’s a few things Owens does in order to do well in a tournament.
“I go to bed really early before a tournament, and I eat a lot before a tournament so I’m not tired,” Owens said. “I try to be really prepared. I like to practice talking without looking at my evidence and try to do it off the top of my head even if it’s bad.”
In their last tournament, Owens and her partner ranked third overall. This was an accomplishment for her since this was a harder tournament for the pair to be in.
“At the last tournament we won three rounds out of five, which was interesting,” Owens said. “We still ranked third which was odd because that normally doesn’t happen. Normally the people who win all the rounds place in the first three. It was just a really weird tournament for us. The teams were really really good. Definitely the hardest tournament I’ve been to. All the teams definitely knew what they were doing. The judges were pretty cool, but it was really hard but really fun.”
Participating in debate is new to her, yet Owens has been around it for most of her life.
“I’ve always really liked debate and my dad’s a lawyer, so he’s been talking to me about that sort of thing since I was really little,” Owen said. “We did a little bit of debate in middle school and I always found that really fun. And I thought high school debate would be really fun for me.”
Overall, Owens has had many accomplishments and achievements this season, but her first tournament is what stood out to her and she was the most proud of.
“Debatewise my biggest accomplishment was the first tournament and placing third,” Owens said. “I didn’t expect that. I kinda went into it like ive never done this before and then I won all five rounds and placed third with my partner and it was really crazy to me.”
