After two days, nine debate rounds, and countless arguments over immigration, freshmen Chloe Johnson and Samantha Lees won the Sunflower Novice Division in the Kansas Championship Series on Jan. 4 and 5.

“(The most exciting part) was the moment that they announced that we had won because I definitely wasn’t expecting that, and so for us, it was like ‘wow, we actually did it,’” Johnson said. “And when they handed us the trophy I was like ‘wow, this is ours. We did this.’”

Not only was this moment meaningful to Johnson and Lees, but it also was incredible for debate coach Lynn Miller.

“I’ve never had a team win novice state,” Miller said. “I had a team in finals many, many years ago, about eight or nine years ago, but that’s as close as I’ve ever come, so it’s a pretty big deal.”

Along with Johnson and Lees, four other debate teams competed. Freshmen teams Jake Hardin and Jimmy Konekeo and Robert Eppler and Kevin Phetsomphou also competed in the Sunflower Novice division.

Sophomores Sean Wentling and David Zimmerman finished with a record of 4-2 and placed in Top 16 of the Sunflower Novice Open division. Junior Dan Archer and sophomore Paige Schroeder made it to octofinals in the Kansas Debate Classic division.

Archer, junior Brianna Hassell and sophomores Jack Sallman and Caleb Carter competed at the KSHSAA state debate tournament on Jan. 11 and 12. Archer and Hassell took 3-3 in pre-elimination debates, Sallman and Carter finished as double octofinalists.

“I thought there was a very good chance that at least one, if not a couple of our teams, would make it to (elimination rounds). You never know about winning because everything has to fall just right,” Miller said. “It’s a panel of three judges and you never know how that’s going to turn out, so I don’t ever go in expecting to win. Our goal is always to try to make it to the elimination debates and hope that everything works well.”

The top eight out of 88 teams break to quarterfinals. Johnson and Lees were the eighth seed going into quarterfinals.

“They were the last seed to get in and ended up going on to win it, so you never know,” Miller said.

There were six rounds before quarterfinals.

“After the first day, in order to make it to quarterfinals, we would have to win all of our rounds on Saturday so it was kind of stressful, but after we won the first two (on Saturday), in the middle of our last one, we were just hoping and praying that we won it,” Lees said.

Johnson said that while it was exciting, it was also nerve-wracking getting so far.

“When we were going to finals and semifinals, I was really nervous during the round,” Johnson said. “I just remember the coaches would have to tell me ‘take 30 seconds and breathe and close your eyes, take 30 seconds and breathe.’”

They had been preparing for this event all season by going to competitive tournaments and after school practices.

“My first (tournament) was kind of stressful, but after that it kind of came naturally because

even if you do lose, you learn something from it so technically, you’re still kind of winning,” Lees said.

They went to Washburn Rural, Kansas City Kansas Community College) and Glenbrooks in Chicago, where they competed against teams on the national circuit.

“That predominantly is what was the most that helped prepared them,” Miller said. “They also had a lot of help from some of the advanced debaters, Tuesday nights practices and practice debates…”

Johnson credits their mentor, advanced debater Hassell, for preparing them. Assistant coach Zac Angleton also worked with the team. They continued to prepare the week of the tournament.

“There was a lot going on with immigration and stuff and especially with asylum seekers, which is what our case was about, so we had to be really up to date with the news,” Lees said. “We had one case that we were going to run, but then that case actually happened so two or three days before novice state we had to learn a new case.”

However, starting from scratch did not keep Lees and Johnson from winning. Once their final round was over, they found out with their coaches and parents that they had won .

“It wasn’t like a huge ceremony or anything, but I liked it because it was the people that helped us get to where we were at, like our parents and our coaches, and I think just seeing them feel so excited for us made me even more excited,” Johnson said.