December 8, 2025
Congratulations to the MPA debate team on a fantastic performance at the Classic State Debate Festival. Fifty students represented the school and debated about the benefits and drawbacks of the U.S. military commitment to South Korea. Their countless hours of research, thinking, and practice contributed to numerous successes across the three divisions of competition—novice, junior varsity, and varsity and to the team finishing third in the sweepstakes competition.
We call the tournament the Classic Debate Championships in novice and junior varsity. In the novice division, the team of Maahi Bhalla and Alice Van Keerbergen advanced to the quarterfinal round. In the junior varsity division, the teams of Truman Wilgocki and Soren Winikoff and Drew Buhr and Harper Short advanced to the octafinal round. The team of Kelvyn Boddipalli and Nico Bergh advanced to the quarterfinal round.
The varsity division is called the Minnesota State High School League Classic Debate State Festival, as the MSHSL sponsors the awards for this event. Three teams had standout performances. The team of Yusuf Ali and Liam Kimmerle narrowly missed advancing to the elimination rounds and finished tenth. The team of Josh Murr and Lucille Mayer advanced to the semifinal round of competition, losing on a narrow 2-1 decision. Finally, the team of Ash Klann and Mina Kim advanced to the final round of the tournament, finishing as runners-up in a very close round.
A special thank you to all the alums who judged and coached for the team this season. In particular, alums Meg Wilkening ’18, Emma Stacy ’15, and Ellie Quam ’19 deserve special recognition. These three women have spent countless hours listening to speeches, reading cases, and thinking about arguments to ensure that over 70 students can learn as much as possible from the rigors of competing in high school debate. More importantly, they gave each one of those students an opportunity to have a voice. They are a testament to what we hope our MPA alums will do when they go out into the world.
