The varsity and novice debate teams competed at the state competition in West Bend, Wisc. on January 21-22. For the first time ever, the debate team made it all the way to the finals.

“Competing at state was an amazing experience. It was so cool to see all of my teammates’ hard work pay off and support each other,” Frances Mackinnon, freshman, said.

The team brought home numerous wins with Katie Cao, Mitchell Larson, seniors, Erin Wei, Ben Kittleson, freshmen, and Frances Mackinnon, sophomore, all winning speaker awards. Also, Andrew Wang and Zidao Wang, freshmen, were novice finalists, and Tyler Gao and Aila Khan, sophomores, were varsity finalists.

“Aila and I beat a team everyone thought we would lose to in the semifinals. We were the first Homestead team to ever make it to finals at debate state and it was only our first year of varsity debate,” Gao said.

Larson and Cao were semi finalists. “I am very proud of all the work the team put in over the course of the year, and can’t wait to see what the future of Homestead Debate holds,” Larson said.

The team’s coaches, Justice Platt, and Wendy Larson, were very proud of the team’s accomplishments and all the hard work they put in throughout the year. “I have faith in our future when I listen to our debaters analyze issues and discuss solutions,” Coach Larson said.