Three good debate meets for Burlington

Burlington’s speech and debate team has been busy with three meets over the last three weekends, at Riverton, Riverside and Casper. 

The Riverton meet was a good place to debut some new events. “They did very well,” said Coach Leah St. Clair. “Especially considering Kitzen Schatz and Reece Allen performed their duo for the first time and Kimber Allen competed in a Lincoln-Douglas debate for the first time!” 

Layla Baer broke into semifinals for Oratory and quarter finals for Impromptu. Raygen Andrew placed fifth in Informative. R. Allen broke into quarterfinals for Informative and semis for her duo with Schatz. Schatz placed sixth for Congress. The boys didn’t break in this tournament but K. Allen won three of his four debate rounds. 

In Basin, the Riverside Jurassic Classic went well. “This is a small, but competitive tournament,” said St. Clair. “The team did great and killed it at the Jurassic Park Trivia Contest.” 

Baer placed third in Oratory. Andrew won first in Informative. R. Allen placed fifth in Informative and placed fifth with Schatz in their Duo and Schatz also placed fifth in Drama in her first time performing and fourth in Congress. 

In Casper, the 2026 Mustang Classic Natrona County was a completely different environment for the Huskies and provided lots of opportunities. “This was a massive tournament and a chance to compete against the large 3A/4A schools on the other side of the state. For us, this made it a vital tournament to see some of the top competitors that they’ll be competing against at state, so we can try to improve their chances of bringing home medals this year at the state competition in March,” said St. Clair. 

Andrew broke to semis in Informative. Schatz made it to the Super Congress and Schatz and R. Allen broke to semis in Duo.

Burlington will have the next two weekends off to practice and prepare for the homestretch of their season. They will compete in Greybull the 20th-21st and then head to Rock Springs for the Wind River District Qualifier Feb. 26-28 and State Speech in Cheyenne March 12-14.