No Debate over these National Honors

Student debaters from Spring Woods, Stratford and Memorial high schools returned recently with top honors and medals from national tournaments held on the east and west coasts with top honors and medals.

Spring Woods and Stratford high school teams won competitions at a snowy Harvard University tournament, while Memorial High debaters scored high in sunny California during a tournament at the University of California at Berkeley.

In addition, 20 speech and debate students at Spring Woods High earned 34 state qualifications, ranking the highly regarded Tiger team third overall in the state. The team continues to rank as one of the largest high school teams in the nation.

Several Stratford High students scored highly and competed in finals during the Texas Forensic Association state weekend, too. The TFA includes private, public, charter and home-schooled students.

Memorial High’s speech and debate team has qualified seven students for its upcoming state competition.

Spring Woods High School Results

Spring Woods High’s Congressional Debate team of Christian Rice, Christine Vo and Avery Reinhart advanced to quarterfinals at the Harvard Debate Tournament, one of the largest student speech and debate tournaments in the nation. The debate tournament was held Feb. 15-17 at the Boston-based campus.

Also advancing to semifinals competition at Harvard were students Max Rombado in Congressional Debate and Nicole Jackson in Dramatic Interpretation.

Victoria Beard is the director of forensics and UIL academics coordinator at Spring Woods High School.

Spring Woods High state qualifiers & Texas Forensic Association results: 

 Seniors: 
 · Avery Reinhart – Domestic & Foreign Extemporaneous Speaking, Original Oratory and Congressional Debate; He advanced to Semifinals in Original Oratory
· Courtney Thompson – Dramatic Interpretation and Duo Interpretation
 · Josselyn Gomez – Dramatic Interpretation and Duo Interpretation
 · Christian Rice – Domestic & Foreign Extemporaneous Speaking, Congressional Debate; He advanced to Semifinals in Congressional Debate and Foreign Extemporaneous Speaking
 · Maria Palomares – Domestic & Foreign Extemporaneous Speaking, Congressional Debate
 · Nicole Jackson – Dramatic Interpretation and Duo Interpretation
 · Jonathan Zapeta – Congressional Debate
 · Gilbert Fernandez – Domestic Extemporaneous Speaking, Congressional Debate
 · Max Rombado – Foreign Extemporaneous Speaking, Congressional Debate; He competed in Finals for Congressional Debate

 Juniors:
 · Christopher Rice – Dramatic Interpretation and Duo Interpretation
 · Valentina Rombado – Duet Acting and Duo Interpretation
 · Isaac Gallegos – Dramatic Interpretation; He competed in Quarterfinals in this area
 · Bhart Sharma – Original Oratory
 · Bram Sebio-Brundage – Humorous Interpretation

Sophomores:
 · Carlos Diaz –Duo Interpretation
 · Christine Vo – Original Oratory, Foreign Extemporaneous Speaking, Congressional Debate
 · Enrique Urdiales – Humorous Interpretation, Duo Interpretation
 · Karesha Bell – Dramatic Interpretation, Duo Interpretation
 · Travis Boyd – Domestic Extemporaneous Speaking, Congressional Debate
 · Angel Ramirez – Original Oratory, Humorous Interpretation, Duet Interpretation

 Stratford High School Results 

Stratford High debaters had winning records at Harvard national tournament, too. The student team of Aby Brugo and Fariha Jawed advanced to the Double Octo final round in Public Forum debate, ranking them among the top 30 competitors. Fariha was ranked fifth-place speaker overall at the Harvard tournament among almost 600 debaters.

In state competition, Justin Raine made it to quarterfinals in Domestic Extemporaneous Speaking, Billy Graves competed in finals in Senate Congressional Debate, and Aby Brugo and partner Fariha Jawed advanced to Double Octo Finals in Public Forum Debate.

In addition, Fariha was ranked fifth overall in Public Forum and made it to finals in Original Oratory, where she placed sixth overall. Fariha also was awarded one of only four TFA scholarships given to seniors across Texas!

Kristi Goemmer directs the Stratford High student speech and debate program.

Stratford High state qualifiers & Texas Forensic Association results:
 · Leo Young-Foreign Extemporaneous Speaking semifinalist
 · Billy Graves-Domestic Extemporaneous Speaking semifinalists, Championship Lincoln-Douglas Debate
 · Jenny Payton-Domestic Extemporaneous Speaking semifinalists, Championship Public Forum Octo Finals
 · Fariha Jawed-Domestic Extemporaneous Speaking 8th place, Original Oratory semifinalist, Championship Public Forum 1st place
 · Zain Ali-Domestic Extemporaneous Speaking 7th place, Championship Public Forum Octo Finals
 · Justine Raine-Domestic Extemporaneous Speaking 4th place, Championship Public Forum Octo Finals with 3rd  place speaking award
 · Aby Brugo-Origional Oratory 6th place, Championship Public Forum 1st place
 · Race Carter-Novice Public Forum Octo Finals with 3rd place speaker award
 · Stian Mantor-Novice Public Forum Octo Finals
 · Mathew Martines-Makowski- Novice Public Forum Quarter Finals
 · Dimitri Dehghani-Novice Public Forum Quarter Finals
 · Abigail Hirst-Novice Public Forum 2nd place
 · Kendall Ward-Novice Public Forum 2nd place
 · Nathaniel Barbour-Championship Public Forum Octo Finals

Memorial High School Results 

Memorial High’s Speech and Debate team competed recently at the 41st National Invitational Tournament held at the University of California at Berkeley. Debaters competed Feb. 14-17 on the East Bay campus.

The Public Forum Debate team comprised of seniors Jonathan Chung and Swati Mahapatra reached the tournament’s elimination rounds, as did the Policy Cross-Examination team of seniors George Chen and Trent McGuinness.

The Berkeley campus hosted more than 300 teams from across the United States for the National Invitational, which is one of the largest and most competitive debate and speech events held annually.

In addition, Memorial High qualified seven students for the Texas Forensic Association State Tournament, which was held March 6-8 at the Cy-Fair ISD’s Cypress Creek High School. About 2,000 students competed there.

Cecil Trent directs speech and debate teams at Memorial High School.

 Memorial High State qualifiers:
 · Trent McGuinness (senior) and George Chen (sophomore) – Cross Examination Debate, Top 8 State Team with Trent 4th best speaker and George 12th overall
 · Sophie Wilczynski (senior) and Monica Day (sophomore) – Cross Examination Debate
 · Lauren McKinle (senior) – Lincoln-Douglas Debate
 · Justin Lee (senior)– Original Oratory
 · Halbert Koelsch (senior)– Congressional Debate

 Trent McGuinness finished among the Top 8 Teams in the state, rating 4th overall as best speaker, and with George Chen rated 12th overall.

In the Cross Examination category of competition, 119 student teams argued back and forth. The Texas Forensic Association (TFA) includes private, public, charter and home-schooled students.