The upper school speech and debate squad kicked off its 2019-20 season Friday and Saturday, Oct. 11-12, at the Blue Springs novice tournament and the Blue Springs South varsity tournament. The team came away with two first place sweepstakes awards and two third place sweepstakes honors at the tourney.

Here are the results:


Team Awards:

• First Place - Overall Sweepstakes Novice
• First Place - Debate Sweepstakes Novice
• Third Place - Individual Events Sweepstakes Novice
• Third Place - Debate Sweepstakes Varsity

Individual Awards:

Tournament Champion

• Thomson Corvin, Josh Huang, David Marvin and Davis Miller - Varsity Policy Debate
• Wazi Asjad, Walter Brookby, Geeoon Chung, Ellie Henry, Hananiah Quinn and Phillip Park - Novice Public Forum Debate
• Armaan Yarlagadda - Novice United States Extemporaneous Speaking
• Wazi Asjad - Novice International Extemporaneous Speaking
• Neha Kumar - Novice Informative Speaking

Tournament Runner-Up
Mary Abou Jawde - Varsity Informative Speaking

Finalists
Policy Debate

• Alex Voss and Armaan Yarlagadda (Novice third place)
• Emerson Pereira and Aarav Yarlagadda (Varsity fourth place)
• Erin William and Catherine Zhao (Novice fourth place)

Public Forum Debate

• Gus Erdman and Dasha McDonald (Varsity fourth place)

Lincoln Douglas Debate

• Lidia McReynolds (Novice fourth place)

International Extemporaneous Speaking

• Geeoon Chung (Novice sixth place)

Original Oratory

• Jiya Singh (Novice third place)
• Ingrid Li (Novice fourth place)
• Gina Singh (Varsity sixth place)

Informative Speaking

• Rita Abou Jawde (Varsity third place) 
• Catherine Zhao (Novice third place)
• Alex Chambers (Novice fourth place)

Congress

• Dasha McDonald (Varsity)

Semifinalists

International Extemporaneous Speaking

• Gus Erdman (Varsity)
• Pierce Jackson, Muad Khalif and Phillip Park (Novice)

Original Oratory

• Charlie Doering-Powell and Mia Randolph (Varsity)
• Claire Holland (Novice)

Informative Speaking

• Ibrahim Adeel, Ellie Henry, Finn Sjue (Novice) 
• Luke Woolley (Varsity)

Duo Interpretation

• Gibbs Morris and Sebastian Sontheimer (Varsity)

Dramatic Interpretation

• Andra Brown (Novice)

Congress

• Aarav Yarlagadda (Varsity)