The varsity members of the Mustang Speech and Debate team traveled to Cy Woods for their first competition of the year.  The annual Big Cat Tournament hosted over 50 schools and over 15 individual events over two days, spanning from Friday, Sept. 26 to Saturday, Sept. 27.

The competition was a swing tournament, with the Wildcat Tournament (hosted at Cy Woods) kicking off the competition at 2:45 P.M. with extemporaneous speaking.

The Varsity Speech and Debate members represented Cy Ranch in a sea of red and maroon, with many members coming home winners. Senior Taylor Needham advanced to semifinals in both prose interpretation and humorous interpretation at the competition, and senior Faith Wright topped the charts and came in 3rd place overall in Original Oratory.

Sophomores Ross Strickland and Ethan Stephens and junior Makenna Shull represented Cy Ranch in the debate categories, participating in Lincoln-Douglas debate rounds and emerging as the winners of several.

The competition wrapped up on Saturday at Cy Fair with the Bobcat Tournament, with Needham traveling to perform in humorous interpretation.

The next tournament, which took place on Friday, Oct. 10 and Saturday, Oct. 11, also saw some Mustang triumph. Sophomore Ethan Stephens finished the competition with 4th place overall in humorous interpretation, and sophomore Ross Strickland advanced to finals in Lincoln-Douglas debate.

The Speech and Debate team continues to work tirelessly to prepare for a tournament-rich year, and hopefully these successes are just the beginning.