The Barstow Debate team competed in the Colleyville Heritage Winter Invitational tournament, but with a familiar competition-altering obstruction. Despite Barstow’s competing debaters’ high hopes, their first traveling competition of the season was moved online due to a snow and ice storm. The major snowstorm slammed the southern United States, causing the roads to be dangerous.
“Although it was disappointing and I would have much rather preferred going in person, I think the tournament was fun and I learned a lot,” said Sriram Pattabiraman ‘24.
Despite the unfortunate circumstances, Barstow students pushed through online. Four varsity teams from Barstow attended, as well as five novice teams. They had two preliminary rounds on Friday which they debated from home and three rounds on Saturday that they debated from school. There were then two elimination rounds Saturday evening and the rest on Sunday.
Varsity debate teams Avisha Pandey ‘22 and Niki Adma ‘22, Sri Pattabiraman ‘24 and Jayden Sampat ‘24, Owen Snyder ‘24 and Quinn Luce ‘23, and Paranjay Sharma ‘24 and Ava Levin ‘24, all participated in the tournament.
Pandey ‘24 and Adma ‘22 finished with a 4-1 record after the preliminary debates, only losing to Blue Valley North. Adma ‘22 and Pandey ‘22 made elimination rounds and debated through Sunday morning. The duo advanced on to the octo-finals in elimination rounds and won in a 2-1 vote against Jesuit, but lost in quarter-finals to Little Rock Central.
Sharma ‘24 and Levin ‘24 finished with a 3-2 record, Snyder ‘24 and Luce ‘23 finished with a 2-3 record, and Pattabiraman ‘24 and Sampat ‘24 finished with a 1-4 record.
Adma ‘22 said, “Although not being in person for this tournament was kind of disappointing, being online allowed Avisha and me to break to quarters. Spending time with the debate team at school during and in-between rounds was still fun. Overall, it was a good tournament.”
Novice teams Tyler Bauman ‘25 and Rish Sood ‘25, Mahek Vora ‘25 and Margo Gonzales ‘25, Ahraar Azaz ‘24 and Aaryan Gadit ‘25, Haddie Schedler ‘25 and Ava Adams-Huang ‘25, and Henry Eastman ‘25 and Kimberly Nguyen ‘23, also attended the tournament. Bauman ‘25 and Sood ‘25 as well as Vora ‘25 and Gonzales ‘25 finished with a 3-2 record, Azaz ‘25 and Gadit ‘25 as well as Schedler ‘25 and Adams-Huang ‘25 finished with a 2-3 record, and Eastman ‘25 and Nguyen ‘25 went finished with a 1-4 record at Eastman’s first ever tournament.
Vora ‘25 and Gonzales ‘25 as well as Bauman ‘25 and Sood ‘25 made it to the quarter-finals. Both of them lost in quarters to Greenhill, but both did extremely well overall.
The novice debaters also ranked well individually. Congratulations to Haddie Schedler ‘25 for 9th place speaker (how well they perform individually), Aaryan Gadit ‘25 for 15th, Mahek Vora ‘25 for 16th, Kimberly Nguyen ‘23 for 18th, Rish Sood ‘25 for 21st, and Tyler Bauman ‘25 for 24th.
Barstow debate has two more debate tournaments to prepare for this year including the Cross River Classic Invitational (formerly known as Kanellis) and a new in-person tournament, the Western JV Novice Championship.
