Barstow debaters attended the University of Houston Cougar Classic tournament on January 14. Due to inclement weather, the ten varsity debaters and ten novice debaters attended the tournament from home. Overall, the tournament was a success and was overall a great learning opportunity for students.
Varsity debater Ava Levin ‘24 was “very proud of all our teams that competed at Houston,” and also said, “Overall, the tournament was a lot of fun and I learned a lot from it.”
The University of Houston Cougar Classic was an online tournament held from January 14 through January 16. In the varsity division, 24 teams from 14 schools participated and 17 teams from five different schools participated in the novice division. The debaters compete in Policy Debate, meaning they each debate in pairs. Overall, five varsity teams and five novice teams from Barstow attended the tournament.
Novice debate partners Margo Gonzales ‘25 and Mahek Vora ‘25, Tyler Bauman ‘25 and Tien “Kimberly” Nguyen ‘23, Aaryan Gadit ‘25 and Ahraar Azaz ‘24, Eli Zeldin ‘25 and Rishabh “Rish” Sood ‘25, Ava Adams-Huang ‘25 and Hadassah “Haddie” Schedler ‘25, competed in the tournament.
Gonzales and Vora went 4-1, Bauman and Nguyen and Gadit and Azaz went 3-2 and advanced to elimination rounds. Zeldin and Sood ended the tournament with 2-3, and Adams-Huang and Schedler had to withdraw from the tournament.
After an amazing performance at the tournament, Gadit and Azaz lost in the octo-finals to Greenhill, and Bauman and Nguyen lost in the quarter-finals to Greenhill. Gonzales and Vora advanced all the way to the semi-finals, where they lost 2-1 (meaning of the three judges, one thought Gonzales and Vora won the debate) to Greenhill. Gonzales got 9th speaker overall, Vora got 10th speaker award overall. The duo ended in the top four at the tournament, and Mahek told B-Line that she would most like to improve her rebuttal speeches, “because they are the final speeches and tend to be the most persuasive.”
In the varsity division, partners Nikitha “Niki” Adma ‘22 and Avisha Pandey ‘22, Meghana “Megha” Gunapati ‘22 and Logan Mulligan ‘23, Quinn Luce ‘23 and Owen Snyder ‘24, Matthew Gill ‘24 and Jayden Sampat ‘24, and Ava Levin and Paranjay Sharma ‘24, competed that weekend as well.
Adma and Pandey, Gill and Sampat, and Levin and Sharma all finished prelims with a 3-2 record, and Luce and Snyder ended with a 2-3 record. Unfortunately, Mulligan and Gunapati had to withdraw from the tournament after two rounds.
Adma and Pandey, Gill and Sampat, and Levin and Sharma all advanced to partial octo-finals. Adma and Pandey lost 3-0 to Westwood, Gill and Sampat lost 3-0 to Canyon Crest High School, and Levin and Sharma lost 3-0 to West High School SLC.
“Having three teams break in varsity and three teams break in novice was amazing,” Levin ‘24 said. Students returned to school Tuesday with positive attitudes following the tournament and are looking forward to their first in-person tournament in February.
They are now preparing for their only traveling tournament this year, where they will be going to Colleyville, Texas at the beginning of February for the Colleyville Heritage Winter Invitational tournament. Levin ‘24 told B-Line, “I think our teams should keep researching the topic and holding practice debates. With a short break before our next tournament, I think we will be able to adequately prepare.”
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