Salem Debate Team Wins State Again

Salem High School’s dominating debate team has once again won the state Class 4 title, giving it Coach Mark Ingerson’s 20th commonwealth championship. Salem blew past Dominion High 32–8. It is the second straight title for the Spartans.

Ingerson’s teams have won 188 speech/forensics titles and two in debate.

Salem won individual state championships in 3 of 4 events, led by senior captain Claire Rawlins, who won the school’s first Lincoln-Douglas title with a 6–0 record, debating whether Artificial General Intelligence is immoral. 

Rawlins had a 14–1 record during the VHSL playoffs, her only loss was during the state semi-finals to the eventual state runner-up. This is Rawlins’s second debate title after winning Policy Debate last year. It was also her fourth Speech and Debate championship after winning back-to-back titles in Impromptu Speaking in Speech/Forensics. Overall, in her career, Rawlins had an incredible 29–3 combined record in state competition.

Seniors U.V. Singh and Grayson Smith had a perfect 5–0 record while winning Public Forum debate, the school’s second title in that event after the 2018 championship by Garrett Hicks and Sami Hoyer. Singh and Smith had a 12-1 record during the VHSL playoffs debating whether the U.S. should significantly increase nuclear energy. 

Dylan Hancock, a 10th grader, won the school’s first Congressional Debate state championship, earning 482 out of a possible 500 speaker points. Congressional Debate is an incredibly competitive event with 24 competitors and only four earning medals. 

Also medaling at the state championships for Salem: 

• Runner-up Congressional Debate Rebekah Steinweg (12th)
• Runner-up Policy Debate Luke Stovall (11th) and Kody Hinnant (10th)
• 4th place Lincoln-Douglas Abby Jones (10th) 
• Salem’s Charlie Bain (12th) and Nesa Garcia-Perez (10th) in Congressional Debate and Leah Johnson (10th) and Ashley Toapanta (10th) in Policy Debate also competed.

Special thanks to Salem High School English teacher Rachel Wurster, who serves as assistant coach for the Spartans.