Stretching his winning streak to nine in a row, Craig Dudzak '69 took first place out of 72 speakers at the Wheeling Debate Tournament on January 21. This is Craig's first year in debate. Though the debate team split with four wins and four losses, Craig and his partner, Jan Zabinski, placed first and third in individual speakers' awards. These are awarded on the basis of the speaker's knowledge of the subject and his delivery.

At the Eisenhower High School Lincoln Day Debate in Blue Island, the team won five out of eight debates. "This is pretty good since the competition was on a J‑V level and ours is only a novice team," stated Mr. Merel Marine, debate sponsor. On February 18, Maine competed at Niles North. All six debaters attended.

Mr. Marine again stressed that more students should go out for debate. "The trips will be more fun with more kids. Not only that, but the debate could compete on more levels ‑ not just novice ‑ and make more trips."

Mr. Marine is especially enthusiastic about the up‑coming Maine Township District Tournament to be held on March 11. It will be the first of an annual event, with the three Maine schools competing.

Three place awards will be given to individual speakers, and a first place trophy will be awarded to the winning school. In addition, a traveling trophy will be awarded.

"We'll be playing host this year," stated Mr. Marine, "and we'd like a lot of kids to come out. We'd like volunteers to take times and compute scores, but mainly we'd like a lot of spectators."

Also coming up is the state sectional meet on March 4. Maine will be sending four debaters to represent the school.