Pine Tree Speech and Debate makes a huge splash at their first tournament of the season

MELISSA (Pine Tree Debate) — Pine Tree High School Speech and Debate team traveled to Melissa Labor Day weekend to compete in the Melissa Argyle Red Bird TFA Swing Tournament. 17 schools and almost 150 students attended the tournament. Pine Tree competed at the tournament with five of their students: Senior Travis Johnson, Junior Aiden McQueary, Junior Alayna Blalack, Freshman Emma Beekman and Freshman Madison Null. The team is coached by Alyx Dickson.

As a result, Pine Tree finished 4th in overall tournament sweepstakes. Additionally, they finished as the top 5A school besting traditional 5A speech and debate powerhouses Lovejoy, Melissa and Princeton. Pine Tree earned 6 medals overall. The tournament was won by 6A Plano West.

In a swing tournament, students compete in two separate tournaments at one host site. In the Argyle portion of the tournament, McQueary finished 6th in Congressional Debate, Beekman finished 3rd in Novice Extemporaneous Speaking and Null finished 4th in Novice Extemporaneous Speaking. In the Melissa portion of the tournament, McQueary finished 6th in Congressional Debate, Beekman finished 2nd in Novice Extemporaneous Speaking and Null finished 4th in Novice Extemporaneous Speaking.

The team will compete next at the Lindale Speech and Debate Classic on Saturday, September 23, 2023.