For the first time in Barstow’s history, the debate team competed in the Golden Desert debate tournament in Las Vegas, Nevada. They left bright and early on Friday, February 3, arriving at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas around midday. The team brought four varsity teams competing in six preliminary rounds and five novice teams participating in five preliminary matches.

In the novice division, Barstow stayed strong, with Elliott Osman (‘26) and Darrin Goodman (‘26) going 4-2 in preliminaries, Rohan Thomas (‘26) and Aun Hathiari (‘26) going 3-3, and teams Sarah Villacorta (‘26) and Romina Taghizadeh (‘26), Eshan Patel (‘26) and Ethan Jiang (‘26), and Ezra Jacobs (‘26) (who debated by himself) going 1-4. Teams Osman and Goodman and Thomas and Hathiari broke to the quarter-finals, but unfortunately lost on some questionable judge decisions.

In the varsity division, all four teams had the same record, with Tyler Bauman (‘25) and Jayden Sampat (‘24), Ava Levin (‘24) and Haddie Schedler (‘25), Margo Gonzales (‘25) and Paranjay Sharma (‘24), and Kimberly Nguyen (‘23) and Rish Sood (‘25), all going 3-3.

All teams had a blast at this tournament. “I really enjoyed getting to see a lot of people from our summer camp,” highlights Nguyen, as this is her last tournament before she graduates. “The judges and opponents were nice, and this tournament was a lot more put together.”

The team now prepares for their last tournament of the season, the Iowa City Cross River Classic, starting on Friday, February 24th. This concludes the debate season for the year, and the team would love your support.