Dozens of pairs of high school students were sent into a frenzy of activity; shuffling papers and voices discussing potential policies and values echoed throughout the Rockhurst cafeteria. There were only 15 more minutes left until each debater would stand before a judge and present their case – time was running out.

Three teams went undefeated at the parliamentary debate tournament hosted by Rockhurst High School Nov 9. Freshmen partners Inaya Khan and Kyleigh Smith, Maleah Downton and Maya Scott were the undefeated novice teams over the course of the two-round evening.

“This tournament was definitely an improvement over our last one. It was exciting to see our novices get excited about parli and perform well,” co-debate coach Kristie Pennock said.

Varsity partners and seniors Katie Byers and Elsa Brundige also went undefeated at this tournament, placing 8th overall in the Varsity division.

“It’s been good to be placing in these tournaments. I thought the topics were really good,” Brundige said.

This was the third parliamentary tournament of the school year. Students from Missouri schools across the metro competed, including Rockhurst, Saint Teresa’s Acadmey, University Academy and Whitefield Academy. The debate team plans to attend one more parliamentary debate tournament at University Academy in the remainder of this semester.

“We’ve been having some pretty normal ups and downs this season. We have been struggling with consistency in our rounds but we are practicing this and as we can see from the results of this tournament, our practice has been bearing some results,” Pennock said.