The Wayland Union High School varsity debate team went 3-3 and the first-year novice team 2-4 at the Grand Valley State Championship tournament held the weekend of Feb. 6 and 7 in Grand Rapids.

The tournament included more than 100 students from across the state: East Kentwood, Groves, Forest Hills Central, Loyola, Mona Shores, Northview, Okemos, Petoskey, Portage Northern, Rockford, Traverse City Central, Wayland and West Ottawa.

The students competed in six preliminary rounds Friday and Saturday, with teams breaking to semi-finals and finals Saturday at Devos Hall at GVSU Pew Campus.

The tournament held two divisions — novice (first year competitors) and ppen (JV/varsity).  All of the students debated this year’s topic which was “Ocean Development and Exploration.”

This year’s novice team included (seated, from left) Esilanna McMenamin, Noelle Oman, Hope Reurink, Mikaila Huffman and Sydney Urben, all freshmen.

The Wayland varsity consists of (standing, from left) juniors Trenton Woodcox, Madalyn Crawford, Samantha Jones, Alexandria Walters and Dylan Thompson. The two varsity teams split their rounds and went 3-3. Each student was awarded with a participation award for competing at such a high level of debate.

Coach Andrea Brown said she is extremely proud of both of her teams and is looking forward to next year’s season.