Harrison High School Debate Team Is Melting The Competition

In the last month and a half, the Harrison High School Debate Team has captured seven titles, three second place finishes and two third place finishes in some of the most competitive regional and national tournaments in the country. Harrison has won 10 tournaments so far this year.

At the Ridge Invitational in New Jersey in December, senior Amy Geller was named Co-Champion of the tournament while three other Harrison Debaters finished in the top 32. At the Regis High School Christmas Classic, freshman Carl Spana was undefeated and took first place in the novice division and freshman Lauren Cole won second place and sophomore Leslie An finished in fourth place.

In early January, junior Kathryn Kenny won the varsity division of the national Newark Invitational tournament and in the novice division of the same tournament, freshman Brian Siegel placed 2nd and Carl Spana placed 3rd. It is the first time a Harrison debater has won the Newark Invitational in either Lincoln Douglas division. A total of eight Harrison students reached elimination rounds at Newark – Amy Geller and sophomore Adam Eljamal reached the quarterfinals (top 8) and junior Elyssa Alfieri and sophomores Matt Zinman and Sammi O’Reilly reached the octo-finals (top 16). Sophomore Raffi Piliero and junior Sarah Ryan finished in the double octo-finals (top 24) and were coached over by teammates based on seeding.

In mid-January, freshman Carl Spana won the prestigious Lexington Winter Invitational in Massachusetts in the novice division. Carl is the fifth consecutive Harrison novice to reach the final round of Lexington.

The last weekend of January saw the Harrison team sweep the Byram Hills 2015 Bobcat Classic. Harrison took the top 8 spots in the Varsity division, closing out the quarterfinal round. Sophomore Adam Eljamal won the tournament and was named the top speaker, and sophomore Raffi Piliero was the tournament runner-up and was named the second speaker. Junior Evan Burger finished in third, Sammi O’Reilly in fourth, Madeline Rawson in fifth, Grant Muller in sixth, Carl Spana in 7th, and Amr El-Azizi rounded out the top 8. Carl Spana was named the top novice of the tournament and as a result was cleared to varsity elimination rounds.

In the same weekend, junior Kathryn Kenny competed at the Derby City Invitational and the Derby City Round Robin in Louisville, Kentucky. Kathryn won both the round robin event and the Invitational event which she had an undefeated record.

The Harrison Debate team will compete at the Scarsdale High School tournament followed by the Harvard University National Championship in the coming weeks.