Four debate students made school history on Saturday as the school swept the CX/Policy Debate district competition, sending juniors Ria Bhasin, Priya Nalliah, Amina Syeda, and sophomore Kruthi Kanduri to state March 16-17 in Austin.

“Policy debate is basically where the affirmative brings up a new policy for the federal government to enact,” Amina Syeda said. “This year our resolution was ‘should the federal government substantially increase funding for primary or secondary education’.”

With different partners from last year, the team is excited to see how well they will do.

“Im looking forward to learning more and learning more about how the circuit works and how everyone’s really approached the resolution in different ways,” Kanduri said. “I’m really looking forward to that and I hop we make it to at least semi finals.”

In her first year competing, Kanduri is ready to see what state will be like.

“It’s my first year in debate so obviously I’m pretty excited,” Kanduri said. “I’m really nervous actually because we have the best of the best coming from each district in Texas and going against them for such a hard topic this year especially is really nerve wracking.”

Leading the debate program for the last three years, Melissa Maier gives all the credit to her students.

“I have an overwhelming sense of pride right now and I feel like it has nothing to do with me,” Maier said. “These kids get in there and they work so hard and they give up a lot of their free time to build these cases an to make sure that they’re showcasing their knowledge and the way that they view things politically and they do an amazing job and I’m just very very proud.”