Congress States + NatQuals

P-Russ's recap:

SUBJECT: Gavelin' Eagles on the cusp of Nationals once again! 🇺🇸🦅🇺🇸

Greetings, all,

We are on our way back from the New Mexico Congressional State Championship and District National Qualifying Tournament, at which Navajo Prep boasted the largest delegation in the state! This fact alone is a tremendous testament to the growth our squad has achieved over the past three seasons. Entries are capped at this championship based on team's "strength" (a measure of our participation and success), and the Gavelin' Eagles are one of only three teams in the state "strong" enough to be allowed to bring 10 competitors to this event. Of those three, we were the sole team to fill all 10 of our slots — meaning fully 1 in 5 students competing today were from NPS. Serious cause for pride and celebration right there!

But that's not all! This is our third year at this prestigious event, and these kids turned out our best overall performance yet. In particular, please join me in congratulating:

• Aspyn Kaskalla, who ranked 4th in the state in the highly competitive and prestigious Senate chamber of Congressional Debate. The top two Senators from this event qualify for the National Speech & Debate Tournament, which means Aspyn is currently New Mexico's 2nd alternate to Nationals for Senate! Since it is not at all uncommon for a few Congress slots to be vacated for one reason or another, Aspyn has a very solid chance of being invited to represent the Land of Enchantment at Nats!

• Kiona Manson, who broke to finals in the House chamber of Congressional Debate and ranked 7th in the state overall. Here, the top four qualify, which means Kio is currently New Mexico's 3rd alternate to Nationals for House! Like Aspyn, Kio has a decent chance of winding up with an official invitation to Des Moines this summer by the time all is said and done!

• Kaleb Jones, who broke to finals in the House chamber of Congressional Debate and ranked 8th in the state overall. Kaleb is currently New Mexico's 4th alternate to Nationals for House! 

• Haylei Redhouse, who broke to finals in the House chamber of Congressional Debate and ranked 9th in the state overall. Haylei is currently New Mexico's 5th alternate to Nationals for House! Haylei was also 3rd overall in her preliminary round!

• Natashia Anderson, who ranked 9th in the state in Senate! Tash is New Mexico's 7th alternate to Nationals for that event!

• Ishi Reale, who ranked 10th in her preliminary round in the House, meaning she was just a single spot away from breaking to finals! This is perhaps the strongest performance a novice from our team has ever put in at this event.

As I've said before, simply being selected to attend this event is an honor, so I want to recognize the other four members of our team who proudly and admirably represented NPS:

• Danica Becenti

• Carla Claunch

• Jerrison Yazzie

• Charmista Barela

Jerrison is worthy of special commendation here. We found out on Thursday that some recent point acquisitions had earned us that coveted tenth slot, so, with less than 48 hours to prep, we asked Jerrison if he wanted to come. He was totally game and did a great job despite this disadvantage!

Major thanks to Coach Kaskalla who chaperoned and cheered us on, and also to Louise Atene for getting us there and back safely. We are also eternally grateful to the supportive members of our community who showed up to judge on our behalf.

Two left: the BIG State Championship in two weeks, and then the BIG District National Qualifier a month after that.

Best,

Russell