On Oct. 17-18, 2025, Horizon Honors competed at McClintock High School in the Jim Fountain Classic, the team’s first tournament of the year. Both speech and debate worked hard during the tournament, and reaped their rewards at the end.

On Oct. 17, Horizon’s debate team arrived bright and early, spending about 14 hours at McClintock High School. Their efforts paid off though, with every student and team winning at least one round. Some notable wins include both of the school’s new novice public forum teams, Eli Geist & Zachary Winslow along with Sailaxmi Macharla & Gowtham Mummareddy, winning two of their four debates. Along with those two, in congressional debate, Aiden Duncan secured a top five ballot. The debate team contributed to a greater score for the school.

In the speech portion, students competed in different categories across the ballot. Six students broke into the finals of the speech portion of the tournament. Melanie Nichols & Ayana Bipin placed 6th in duet acting just behind Matthew Greco & Syd Drowne, who got 5th in the same category. In the prose category, Ian Mayercek placed 6th and Abbi Prieto placed an astonishing 2nd place in the category. 

As a whole, Horizon Honors scored third place in highest average sweepstakes points, beating over 15 other schools, and won the sweepstakes for small schools (under 20 entries), which is a huge accomplishment for the team.

The Horizon Sun arranged an interview with Ian Mayercek; we asked questions about how he felt and prepared for the tournament, along with his ideas about how he did.

The Horizon Sun: What were some steps you had taken in practicing/finding topics?

Ian Mayercek: I already had a vague idea that I wanted to do something from one of my favorite authors for my prose piece. From there it was just narrowing down which author, then which book and which segment.

The Sun: When you arrived, what were some of your thoughts on the tournament/competition?

IM: My initial thought was that I’d gone to the wrong place, because there were no cars or other people. It turns out I’d accidentally parked on the wrong side of the school. Once I actually got into the cafeteria, my main thought was that this tournament was pretty small. Turns out I was just early and it was a VERY large event.

The Sun: What was one of your favorite pieces from another school?

IM: I really enjoyed almost every piece I saw from other contestants. My favorite would probably be Lillian Perry’s piece on Abortion. It was incredibly powerful and very meaningful, especially in our current political climate. She ended up placing 3rd for Prose and I couldn’t be happier that she beat me.

The Sun: What were your reactions to breaking into finals and your placement in said finals?

IM: I went into the tournament with zero expectations of placing at all. I was honestly just happy with making it to my rounds on time. So when I found out I had placed, I was genuinely shocked. I was very nervous before performing, but the support of my team really helped me. I wasn’t mad at all about my final placement, everyone else was so incredible and earned the place they got.

The Sun: If you could go back in time and tell yourself one thing what would it be?

IM: Probably just tell myself to join Speech earlier. I’ve already had so much fun and made so many new friends.

The Sun: How good are you feeling about the rest of the speech and debate season?

IM: I’m feeling really great. Now that I know what to expect from tournaments I know exactly how to practice and improve. I can’t wait for November 8th!

The Horizon Sun congratulates the whole Speech and Debate team and wishes them luck for their next tournament on Nov. 8th.