Within the span of one weekend, students participated in two tournaments — the NSU University School Sunvitational and the Laird Lewis Tournament at Myers Park High School in North Carolina — to partake in Speech and Debate related events.

Varsity members attended the Sunvitational tournament. Seniors and fourth-year debaters Brandon Becker and Jacob Becker earned first place for Public Forum in the round robin, an event that is held before the tournament. Senior Michael Hunschofsky placed sixth in the Congressional Debate round robin.

“A round robin consists of teams that are ranked within the top 10 in the nation,” Brandon Becker said.

Additionally, senior Asha Rampertaap was a semifinalist in the Original Oratory and Dramatic Interpretation categories. In Congressional Debate, senior Zachariah Chou and sophomores Chris Matei and Nicolas Fonseca qualified as semi-finalists. Michael Hunschofsky qualified as a Congressional Debate finalist, earning fourth place.

In Lincoln-Douglas Debate, sophomore David Min was a double octofinalist, and in Public Forum Debate, junior Jonah Platovsky and sophomore Jordan Parker were octofinalists (finished in the top 16 at the tournament). Brandon Becker and Jacob Becker finished top eight as quarterfinalists.

During the same weekend, novice competitors traveled to North Carolina to  compete at the Myers Park tournament.

In Novice Public Forum Debate, freshmen Alex Becker, Mark Kava, Shubhum Giroti and Jordyn Allen finished as octofinalists.

In the Novice Lincoln-Douglas Debate category, freshman Robert Gillespie was the sixth place speaker and octofinalist, and sophomore Chloe Brown was the 11th place speaker and semifinalist.

This weekend, the debate team will travel to Stanford University for the 30th annual Stanford Invitational Speech and Debate Tournament. At the end of the month, the team will compete at Emory University.