On January 10th, City High’s debate team traveled to DMACC in Ankeny to compete in the state debate tournament. They returned as state champions of policy debate. Toe Collins ‘26 and Lily Rantanen ‘26 were runner-ups and Kaj Larsen ‘25 and Ethan Lalumiere ‘25 were awarded first.

“It was pretty amazing. They’ll start off the decision by saying congratulations to both sides then they’ll say this team won, they did not do that,” Kaj Larsen ‘25 said. “Ethan and I were sitting in our chairs looking at each other, sweating, like what the heck happened? We felt good but I think as soon as we heard that second judge chime in and say we were for you it was a big sigh of relief.”

In debate, there is a panel of three judges and each one votes for who they think won. When the second judge voted for them Lalumiere and Larsen knew they had the majority. 

The debate teams have worked toward the state championship since the season started in September.

“We have been practicing and competing since September, so it’s been a long season,” Coach Drew Gartner said. “We really tried to familiarize ourselves with the opponents that were going to be there and what arguments they liked to make.”

However, winning a state does not qualify a team for nationals. There will be a separate district qualifier in February.

“We’ll be facing a lot of the same opponents, but now we know some of the new tricks they’ve broken out,” Larsen ‘25 said. “I think our goal is to just further flesh out answers to the new things they started using at state.”