Central North Island Debating Competition

Over the weekend of March 11 and 12 four PNBHS debate teams competed in the Central North Island Debate Competition, hosted at Whanganui High School. This competition is to determine who from our region (Horowhenua, Manawatu, and Taranaki) would represent our region at Nationals the national competition.

Our teams were:

PNBHS Senior A: Thomas Malone, Noah McCallum, Tane Nielson

PNBHS Senior B: Simon Ton, Stanley Pettengill, Oliver Song

PNBHS Junior A: Tyler Thompson, Kexu Chen, Leejun Kim

PNBHS Junior B: Marc Kaiser, Connor Fraser, Dylan Tyler-Hirst

Our Senior A team made it to the finals, with 5 straight wins, and narrowly lost in the finals against Whanganui Collegiate Gold (who they had beaten earlier in the tournament).

Our Junior A and Junior B teams made it to the junior finals, where our Junior A team won.

Tane Nielson received tied-equal for Best Speaker of the Tournament and has been selected to represent our region at Nationals.

Thomas Malone received a notable mention.

Tyler Thompson received tied-equal for Best Junior Speaker of the Tournament.  Tyler was also selected for the NZSDC Development Programme for debaters who narrowly missed out on qualifying for their regional team but have shown exceptional talent and potential.