The Hartland Middle School at Ore Creek Middle School student was one of nearly 30 students debating at the second annual Tri-County League of Debate clubs' Individual War of Words (IWOW), held at Lake Fenton High School.
Not new to winning, Leena won the Director's Scholarship Award of Excellence one year ago.
"She did fantastic," said David Kuzner, her debate club coach in Hartland. "She had her game face on.
"She had all her family there."
In her fifth and final round, Leena and Lake Fenton's Kacey Phegley debated whether or not matter can be created or destroyed. In a very close match, Leena pulled out ahead by a score of 28.6 to Kacey's score of 28.1.
Kacey took second place at the IWOW and won a $2,000 scholarship.
Debate co-founder Robert Krug said a total of $9,000 in scholarship funds were awarded at the IWOW. Krug, who is the Fenton Township Clerk and Tony Brown, a trustee of Fenton Township are credited with starting the debate clubs throughout the area. The first debate was held at the former Torrey Hill Middle School, which is now the intermediate school, on Oct. 5, 2004.
Brown said he was very pleased with how the season turned out and said thousands of dollars in donations have already come in for next year's final debate.
Judges for Saturday's debate were Genesee County Circuit Court judges Archie Hayman, Duncan Beagle, Michael Theile, David Newblatt and Jennie Barkey and Genesee County District Court Chief Judge Mark McCabe. Moderators for the day were Randall Thompson of Freedom Works and Attorney at Law Brian Barkey. Scorekeepers were Jim Ellis and Lee Mortorana.
Krug said while everyone was taking a lunch break on Saturday, several of the judges commented on how they could not believe the students were as young as they were. He said Hayman encouraged him to give some sort of recognition to the students from Flint's Whittier Middle School, who participated for the first time.
Middle school students or representatives wanting to inquire about, or join a league debate club, can contact Graham Morgan at (810) 735-5932.
Adults that would like to help coach one of the middle school debate teams should also contact Morgan.
Still excited about winning, Leena said Thursday that she was nervous going into the last round of debates because she knew her opponent was really good.
Leena said she thought to herself, "How are the judges going to decide? We both deserved the trophy." Leena also said that if her opponent had won, she would not have been surprised.
Preparing for the debates was quite a bit of work, Leena said. Whenever she's researching debate material, she said one thing that has really helped her along the way is that she pictures herself speaking out loud. She said this debate experience has also had a positive effect on her persuasive speeches in school.
Though she did not get to personally meet any of the judges on Saturday, Leena said, "It was a great thing that we had real judges."