With a flight booked home from Berkeley early Monday afternoon, the expectations of seniors Katie and Eric Wimsatt to qualify for the final rounds of the 2017 Cal High School Speech and Debate Tournament were few.

However, the Wimsatts reached the quarterfinals stage at the Cal Invitational this past weekend and “we missed our flight to San Diego,” said Katie.

Competing in a pool of 212 two-person teams on the campus of University of California, Berkeley, the Wimsatts achieved a spot in the top eight.

“I’m psyched,” said Katie. “It’s very, very major. [The Cal Invitational is] the biggest tournament in the country number-wise.”

The Wimsatts, along with freshman Madelyn Flores who competed at the tournament for the first time, flew up to Berkeley Thursday night to compete all day Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. The tournament included Policy, Lincoln-Douglas, Congressional, and Public Forum debate.

The Wimsatts were previously ranked 41st for policy debate. Katie said, “at this point it’s more of a reputation thing. Since it’s such a huge tournament, more people will know who we are, which is cool. But…[there are] no major implications of this.”