HURON — The Huron High School Speech & Debate Team traveled to Watertown for the Northern South Dakota District National Qualifying Tournament on Feb. 15-16.
Huron had two students qualify to the National Speech & Debate Tournament, which will be held in Dallas, Texas, in June.
In Program Oral Interp, Jasmine Snow qualified, and in Humorous Interp, Huron qualified Reese Uecker. Both are seniors. For Snow, this is her third time qualifying for the National Tournament. She attended previous National Speech & Debate Tournaments in Birmingham, Ala. (2017)  and Fort Lauderdale, Fla. (2018).
“This team is really ending the season strong. They followed up a strong second place finish in the Central Forensic Conference (CFC) with an excellent National Qualifying Tournament,” said head coach Mitch Gaffer. “We had students in four final rounds, getting students to Nationals in two of them. We also had a lot of students make deep runs in the tournament. The coaching staff was very proud when we walked out of Watertown High School that night.”
Other students who were able to advance at the Northern S.D. District Tournament:

• In US Extemp, Nathan Maxted advanced five rounds, Sofia Ledeneva and Jacob Hotchkiss each advanced four rounds.
• In Public Forum Debate, Nathan Maxted and Thomas Mayfield advanced to the final round but lost to Brookings High School, just missing a National Tournament spot. Also, the team of Sofia Ledeneva and Jacob Hotchkiss advanced four rounds, while the teams of Kaleb Calkins and Cooper Johnson each advanced three rounds.
• In Duet Interp, the team of Asia Bindert and Jayden Ritter advanced to the final round and placed fifth.
• In LD Debate, Reese Uecker advanced five rounds.
• In Humorous Interp, Jackson Trandall advanced three rounds.
“Seniors led the way for the Tigers at the National Qualifier,” Gaffer said. “Seniors Reese Uecker and Nathan Maxted each advanced far in two different divisions; one Speech and one Debate. Both of our National Qualifiers are seniors — Jasmine in Program Oral Interp and Reese in Humor.
“Seniors Sofia Ledeneva and Jacob Hotchkiss advanced far in Speech and Debate events, as well,” he added. “Combined with some strong underclassman finishes, we had a successful National Qualifying Tournament.”
The Speech & Debate Team takes a week off before ending their season with the State Debate Tournament on March 1-2 and the State Student Congress Tournament on March 5, both in Sioux Falls. The Speech & Debate Team Awards Potluck is in the HHS Commons on Thursday, March 14.