LEWISTON – Twenty high school students, including nine from western Maine, have won a spot in the national speech and debate championship to be held in June.

Held Saturday, the state tournament pitted 132 students from 13 high schools against each other in nearly a dozen different speech and debate categories. Students earned points based on their performance.

From Poland Regional High School, Max Levine and Ronan McNulty qualified for public forum debate, Brendan Blake and Devin Conway qualified for policy debate, Kaitlyn Levine and Jess Moser qualified for duo interpretation and Zach Hews qualified for humorous interpretation. From Lewiston High School, Cassie Jensen qualified for original oratory and Ashley McWhorter qualified for humorous interpretation.

Poland Regional High School’s speech and debate team earned so many points that it came in first for the entire tournament. Lewiston High School came in second.

Students who qualified at the state level will now go on to compete at the National Forensic League’s National Tournament, which will be held June 12-17 in Philadelphia. About 2,500 students from around the country will compete.