The Oakville Senior High School speech and debate team will have the largest showing in its 16-year membership in the National Forensic League at the league’s national competition scheduled this summer in Birmingham, Ala.

Five Oakville students advanced to the national competition at the qualifying event conducted from Feb. 28 to March 7 in St. Louis, and the Oakville team received the Leading Chapter Award.

Oakville students Kyle Anzalone, Lauren Hebert, Geoff King, Samantha Ravens and Travis Zimpfer will attend the national competition set from June 13 to June 20.

Anzalone, Hebert, King and Zimpfer competed against 119 students in the Stu-dent Congress event to qualify for nationals during the St. Louis competition. The students debated legislation they submitted before the event and the four were among six students who qualified for the national competition at the event.

“Oakville has dominated Student Congress this year and last, beating out powerhouses like Ladue, Clayton, Jefferson City and Parkway West, and a school with a team almost four times our size: Pattonville,” English teacher Ed Taylor, who has coached the speech and debate team for the past eight years, stated in a news release.

Ravens will compete in the Humorous Interpretation event at nationals while Anzalone and King each double-qualified for the national competition in Public Forum Debate and Student Congress. Because students are allowed to participate in only one event at the competition, Anzalone and King both have chosen to compete in the Public Forum Debate.

“Kyle and Geoff finally and absolutely proved themselves by going undefeated over three days, taking first in Public Forum Debate out of 50 entries, guaranteeing themselves a slot in nationals,” Taylor stated. “And Samm Ravens has been inching towards this finish for three years. I am tickled she is going out with a bang in her favorite event, Humorous Interpretation.

“Here we come, Birmingham.”