WIMBERLEY — Kathryn McKinney and Josh Bober of Wimberley High School claimed sixth place at the UIL 4A Cross Examination (CX) Debate State Championships on March 17-18 at the University of Texas at Austin.
The duo finished with a record of 4-2 in the competition, which placed them sixth out of 53 state-qualifying pairs. They defeated teams from Sunnyvale, Burkburnett and Salado in the preliminary rounds, only losing to a duo from the Judge Barefoot Sanders Law Magnet school in Dallas.
A win over a Caddo Mills HS team set up a rematch with the JBS Law Magnet team in the quarterfinals. Arguing from a different side (this time in the affirmative) did not prove beneficial to the WHS team as they lost to the JBS Law Magnet school duo a second time.
McKinney and Bober's sixth-place finish was the first time placing at the state CX meet for a WHS team since 2014, when Justin Hughes and Hayden Isler finished in a tie for third. In addition to this year's team finish, Bober received the Silver Gavel Award, given to the second-ranked speaker in the entire 4A competition, meaning Josh placed second out of 106 students.
In CX Debate, sometimes known as Policy Debate, the partners on each team are assigned the affirmative or negative stance on the topic. The 2022-23 CX Debate topic was the following:
The United States federal government should substantially increase its security cooperation with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in one or more of the following areas: artificial intelligence, biotechnology, cybersecurity.
Each year, the National Federation of State High School Associations sponsors the selection process for determining the CX debate resolution to be used nationwide. The 2023-24 policy debate topic has already been chosen and is:
The United States federal government should substantially increase fiscal redistribution in the United States by adopting a federal jobs guarantee, expanding Social Security and/or providing a basic income.
Throughout the matchup, the two teams take turns presenting points and then cross-examining their opponents' points. Judges score each speaker throughout the contest and the team with the highest score total advances.
WHS students have been State CX Debate Champions once. In 2006, Malone Allen and Matt Howard won the 3A State Championship.
