After the excitement of the Capitol Congress tournament, we kicked off the rest of our season with 18 students competing in the first FULL Speech & Debate tournament hosted by East Mountain High school on October 15th. It was the first in-person Speech & Debate tournament for all but one of our competitors, and the very FIRST tournament for many others! We re-instituted our team warm-ups much to the admiration of other teams and parents, helped new folks figure their way around Tabroom and postings, and watched each other grow and improve. Special shout-out to seniors Noor and Sophia for dropping by to support despite the fact they were not competing!
A few specific highlights from this tournament included:
Speech
1st place in Original Oratory — Lilee Zapatka (first tournament!)
1st place in Impromptu Speaking — Becca Faber
2nd place in Impromptu Speaking — Isa Arbetan
2nd place in Speech Interp Showcase (doing POI) — Ell Bueno (first tournament!)
3rd place in Informative Speaking — Ben Raihane (first tournament!)
Debate
1st place in Policy Debate — Corbett Thomas & Aarush Tutiki (AT’s first tournament in CX!)
2nd place in Policy Debate — Cindy Fan & Ashna Singh (AS’s first tournament!)
1st place in Varsity Lincoln Douglas Debate — Darin Eberhardt
2nd place in Novice Lincoln Douglas Debate — Meryem Anderoglu (first tournament in LD!)
As a whole, we took home 1st place finishes in 4 out of the 9 categories that we entered in, with many other students placing in the top 3 of their events. Congratulations to all for making this weekend such a success!
