Niles North Debate Wins Wake Forest Tournament

The Niles North Debate Team competed at the Wake Forest University Early Bird Tournament on September 6 through 8. The team of Luc Walkington and D’Angelo Oberto-Besso Pando won the Varsity division at this prestigious national tournament, in which 115 teams from 18 states competed. The team debated 11 teams over the course of the three days. They entered elimination rounds with a 5-1 preliminary record and as the fifth seeded team.

Luc Walkington was named the Top Speaker, out of 229 debaters, and D’Angelo Oberto-Besso Pando earned 11th speaker. In addition, Walkington and Pando earned their first bid to the Tournament of Champions. They need just one more bid to qualify for the Tournament of Champions, the national championship policy debate tournament that is held every April.

Also competing for Varsity: Sam Eschker debated as a maverick and finished with a 4-2 preliminary record, and Adam Yusen, Bushra Amiwala, Ruby Hyder and Sharmain Siddiqui also competed.

In the Junior Varsity division, Charmee Kamdar won sixth speaker and Bill Bert won seventh speaker. Also competing were Suleiman Nisar, Nate Robinson and Sara Siddiqui.

Katie Gjerpen is the Head Debate Coach. She is assisted by Ian Miller, Colin McEhlinny, Jack Caporal, Evan McCarty, Lincoln Garrett and Patrick Kennedy