2025 Debate State Tournament: Recap
Posted: Sunday, January 19, 2025 - 5:19 PM
Granting diplomatic recognition to the Republic of Somaliland as an independent state and strengthening protection of domestic intellectual property rights in the United States were two of the topics argued at the 2025 Debate State Tournament – the 124th edition and longest-running event of the Minnesota State High School League.
Edina’s Aditi Jah improved on last year’s runner-up showing and claimed her first title in the Lincoln-Douglas competition. She defeated teammate Valerie Schmitt in the final round. Defending champion, Bella Adams of St. Croix Preparatory Academy, did not qualify for this year’s final rounds.
The results of eight rounds of debate proved that Param Thakkar and Tristin Nguyen of Eagan were the best policy debaters. Thakkar and Nguyen defeated Will Cannon and Nikola Nounawon-Castro of Farmington in the title round.
This was the first championship for Thakkar and Nguyen. They fell in the semifinals of the 2024 tournament.
The defending champions in policy, Max Ulven and Kiernan Baxter-Kauf of St. Paul Central, fell in the quarterfinals.
Zellie Olson and Eva Redmond of Blake took top honors in Public Forum for a second consecutive year. They defeated Devin Lester and Yezul Maharjan of Lakeville North in the final round. This was the sixth consecutive Public Forum championship for a team from Blake.
Lily Plahn of Robbinsdale Cooper won her first title in Congressional debate. The win was an improvement on last year’s fifth-place showing.
Congressional is a mock legislative assembly competition where students draft bills (proposed laws) and resolutions (position statements). Their peers then debate the legislation and vote whether or not to pass it into law. There were six rounds of Congressional debate, concluding with two Super Sessions on Saturday afternoon.
The Policy debate portion of the tournament has been conducted since 1902 and the Lincoln-Douglas portion of the tournament, which was an invitational event from 1986 through 1989, was added to the tournament in 1990. Public Forum was introduced in 2013 and Congressional was added in 2018.
Complete results are available at 2025 Debate Results