Valley Mid America Cup - September 26th-28th – West Des Moines
          Senior Silas Wallen-Friedman reached the quarter final round in Varsity Lincoln Douglas Debate at the Valley Mid America Cup in West Des Moines, Iowa, September 26-28. Silas was 12th speaker in Lincoln Douglas and received a bid to the Tournament of Champions to be held in May, 2010, in Lexington, Kentucky.

In Varsity Policy debate, metro area teams dominated at the end - five of the eight teams reaching the quarter final round hailed from Minnesota: Edina, Eden Prairie, Wayzata, Blake and St. Paul Central.

Lakeville South Invitational - October 3rd - Lakeville South High School
          Minnesota’s High School debate season opened on Saturday, October 3, 2009, with a tournament hosted by Lakeville South High School offering competition at the varsity and novice levels in both Lincoln Douglas and Policy debate and Public Forum. In Varsity Policy debate the team of Trevor Aufderheide and Erin Sielaff compiled a 3-0 record and finished in third place overall. Trevor Aufderheide was 2nd Speaker in Varsity Policy. Novice Lincoln Douglas debater Jessie Hankes finished with a 4-1 record, Edina sophomore Tara Gupta finished 3-2 in Varsity Lincoln Douglas debate and Colin Forker went 3-2 in Novice Lincoln Douglas.

Bloomington - October 10th - Bloomington Jefferson High School
          Edina debate students competed at the Bloomington Tournament on October 10th at Bloomington Jefferson High School. In Novice Policy, students debated three rounds with three Edina novice teams compiling a 2-1 record: Ken Beaulieu and Hunter Pribyl-Huguelet, Alexandra Herr and Joe Yang, and Kelwen Peng and Sarah Winton. In Novice Lincoln Douglas debate students debated four rounds. Freshman Jessie Hankes finished with a 4-0 record and finished second overall. Colin Forker went 3-1 in Novice Lincoln Douglas debate.

Rosemount Round Robin & University of Minnesota High School Debate Tournament October 16th – 17th - U of MN
          Edina Varsity Policy debaters Nick Khatri and Trevor Aufderheide had an outstanding performance October 16 & 17, taking 2nd at the most competitive Rosemount Round Robin in State history. The annual Rosemount Round Robin, held in conjunction with a high school debate tournament the University of Minnesota, pits the eight top Minnesota high school policy debate teams against each other for 7 rounds of highly competitive debate. Each team hits every other team once. Results are not revealed until the end of the two day tournament. Going into the seventh and final round Edina (5-1 at the time) debated St Paul Central (also at 5-1). SPC picked up to finish in first place overall with a 6-1 record and Edina took second with a 5-2 record. Finishing in 3rd with a 4-3 record was Eden Prairie. Wayzata came in 4th edging out Henry Sibley by half a speaker point; both teams were also 4-3. The field was the most competitive in State history, with members of 5 of the teams having earned bids to the Tournament of Champions over the last two seasons and included the top teams from St. Paul Central, Edina, Eden Prairie, Wayzata, Henry Sibley, Highland Park, Blake and host school Rosemount High School.

In Varsity Policy debate at the University of Minnesota HS Debate Tournament the Edina team of Hannah Nelson and sophomore Erin Sielaff compiled a 5-0 record and was seeded in first place after the elimination rounds. Hannah and Erin then advanced to the final round, after winning in quarters and semis, dropping in the final round to Wayzata on a 3-0 decision. Edina senior Silas Wallen-Friedman finished 3-2 and was 2nd Speaker in Varsity Lincoln Douglas debate. Colin Forker went 3-1 in Novice Lincoln Douglas debate.

Hopkins Royal Cup - October 23rd-24th – Hopkins High School
          Edina competed in Policy and Lincoln-Douglas Debate October 23-24 at the 16th Annual Hopkins Royal Cup at Hopkins High School in Minnetonka. Lincoln Douglas students debated six preliminary rounds while Policy students competed in five preliminary rounds. In each type of debate, the top eight teams in the prelims advanced to quarterfinals. In Varsity LD, Edina senior Jimmy Libbey compiled a 4-2 record was seeded 8th, advancing to the quarter finals where he faced Jayant Tripathy of Lakeville North, who was seeded first and who went on to win the tournament. Sophomore Tara Gupta went 4-2 in Varsity Lincoln Douglas for 10th place overall. In Varsity policy debate two Edina teams went 4-1 and made the quarter finals round; Trevor Aufderheide partnered with Annie Dehnel and Erin Sielaff debated with Mimi Sergent-Leventhal. In quarter finals, Erin and Mimi dropped to Henry Sibley, who went on the win the tournament in the Varsity Policy division. In novice Lincoln Douglas debate, Edina freshman Jessie Hankes went 4-2 and finished 9th overall.

Iowa Caucus –October 30th-November 1st - Cedar Rapids, Iowa
          Seventy five teams were entered in Varsity Policy Debate competition at the Iowa Caucus Debate Tournament hosted by Washington High School in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, October 30th - November 1st. Policy teams debated six preliminary rounds, with the tournament breaking to double octas and the top 32 teams advancing to the elimination rounds. Edina sophomore team Erin Sielaff and Mimi Sergent-Leventhal (Edina SS) went 4-2 and missed the break on points.

Metro area teams again dominated at the end - ten of the top 20 speakers in Varsity Policy were from Minnesota, with Edina’s Nick Khatri coming in at 14th Speaker, and seven of the eight teams reaching the quarter final round hailed from Minnesota including Edina KN (Nick Khatri and Hannah Nelson). In quarter finals, Eden Prairie defeated Wayzata DM on a 3-0, Blake defeated Highland Park on a 2-1, St. Paul Central topped Edina on a 3-0 and the only non Minnesota team in the quarters, Oak Park River Forest of Illinois edged Wayzata RS on a 2-1 to advance to semis. Edina High School senior Silas Wallen-Friedman reached the octa final elimination round in Varsity Lincoln Douglas Debate at Iowa Caucus.

In novice policy debate over Halloween weekend, Edina freshmen competed at Henry Sibley in Mendota Heights.

Edina Debate Travels to 2009 Michigan Seniors Round Robin November 4th-5th
          The debate team saw action at three venues November 4-8, 2009: the Michigan Senior Round Robin and Policy Debate Tournament in Ann Arbor, Michigan; a regional Policy Debate Tournament at Concordia in Moorhead, Minnesota, and in Apple Valley, Minnesota, where the Lincoln Douglas team competed at the 24th annual MinneApple, a national tournament.

Seniors Trevor Aufderheide and Nick Khatri (Edina AK) placed an unprecedented second place (5-1) in the Michigan Seniors Round Robin, an invitational competition among seven top teams preceding the national Michigan Tournament, where Edina AK went 5-1 in prelims, advancing to two elimination rounds. Edina AK dropped in the octafinal (bid round) on a 2-1 decision, compiling a record of 11 wins and 3 drops over five days of intense debate. Edina sophomore team Erin Sielaff and Mimi Sergent-Leventhal (Edina SS) went 4-2, narrowly missing the break on points.

Concordia
     At Concordia, Sarah Winton and Kelwen Peng made it to finals before deciding to concede to Wayzata because it was late and they wanted to head back home. Sarah was also the 2nd Speaker. Alex Herr and Jon Yang compiled a winning record, just missing the break. In Varsity policy Edina FS (Reka Fink and Maya Sadagopal) reached the quarterfinals against Wayzata BG.

MinneApple
     In Novice LD at the MinneApple Jessie Hankes went 4-2 in prelims and was seeded 16th going into the elimination rounds, where she faced the top seed in octafinals.

Highland Park, November 13th-14th –St. Paul, MN >
     Twenty Edina debaters competed at the 2009 St. Paul Capitol City Invitational Debate Tournament, hosted November 13th and 14th at Highland Park High School. In Novice Policy the team of Sarah Winton and Kelwen Peng (Edina PW) took 1st Place, and Alex Herr and Jon Yang (Edina HY) took 4th Place. Alex was named 4th Speaker in Novice Policy. In JV Policy, Vivian Ha and Sophia Charan (Edina CH) took 3rd Place. In Varsity Policy, Edina FS (Reka Fink and Maya Sadagopal) took 7th Place. In the elimination rounds of the Varsity division, Edina SS (Erin Sielaff and Mimi Sergent-Leventhal) advanced to semi-finals, dropping to Sibley BK. In the final round Sibley BK defeated Wayzata RS on a 3-2 to win the tournament.