Adelaide goes to State

Olney High School senior Adelade Edgington made her third trip to the state-level University Interscholastic League debate competition in Austin in as many years, coming away with an eighth-place finish in the Congress Speech and Debate Competition.

Ms. Edgington was the only Congress State Qualifier from Olney to travel to Austin for the two-day competition, which took place on the University of Texas campus on Jan. 3 and at the Texas Capitol building on Jan. 4. Last year, she took fifth place in the Conference 2A State UIL Congress Meet, and in May, won a silver medal in the UIL Informative Speaking category that qualified her for a trip to Washington D.C. last summer.

“I think it was the best trip I have ever been on,” she said. “We all had to enter into essay competitions and do interviews so we were all very like-minded. We were all very interested in politics and history.”

Ms. Edgington prepared for the state contest this year by researching “affirmative” and “negative” positions on 20 pieces of legislation, and preparing to speak for up to six hours for each day of the competition, she said. “It’s kind of like a competition to see who can speak the most and also whose speeches are the best,” she said.

Ms. Edgington said she intends to major in political science, possibly at Texas A&M University.