Sudbury- The Lincoln-Sudbury Speech and Debate Team hosted its annual L-S Speech and Debate Showdown on Saturday, December 7th. The tournament was a huge success, as it brought over 390 student participants and over 100 judges, parents, and coaches from 39 schools.
The LS Speech and Debate Team, a National Forensic League top 100 team, had a very good showing and placed exceptionally well in a multitude of events.
In speech, the team had many participants who performed very well. Individual trophies won by LS participants in speech events included: Krystal Phu (1st in Novice Extemporaneous), Avery Katz (3rd in Radio Broadcasting), and Melody Phu (7th in Dramatic Interpretation). Other participants , Ally Barth, Marissa Cannistraro and Kendall Dawson (Novice Reading); Trishla Ghandi and Myisha Majumder (Prose Reading); Tara Mehta (Play Reading);Alex Picarella (Radio); Abby Wight (Poetry Reading); Michael Yang (Impromptu) .
In debate, the team also did very well. Austin Lessin placed 1st in Congressional Debate. In Public Forum Debate, nine pairs competed and two pairs made it into the final rounds. Zachary Semple and David Wu won placed 1st overall, going undefeated with a 6-0 record after winning their semi-final round. Rohan Shankar and Natasha Kadlec also won their semi-final round and ranked 2nd with a final record of 5-1. Other successful pairs included Katie Pinto and Sarena Ho (5th in Public Forum), as well as Justin Liu and Eugene Lee(15th place in Public Forum). Three participants from LS also received top speaker awards. Natasha Kadlec won 8th, Rohan Shankar won 9th, and Katie Pinto won 10th. Other pairs that participated included Aaron Epstein (maverick), Emily Hong and Ellie Hardwick, Guy Katz and Andrew Lee, William Ye and Logan Engstrom, and Jacob Weinstein and Timothy Wu.
The Lincoln-Sudbury Speech and Debate team gives thanks to staff, parents and students who did not participate. The team also gives thanks to the LS faculty for letting the team use over 80 classrooms, which allowed students to participate in 5 PFD rounds and 19 different Speech events. The team is especially grateful to Ms. Jennifer Garfield, the LS Speech and Debate Team Faculty Advisor for all of her support and dedication. Without them, such a huge undertaking would not have been possible.
