Debate Results2012-2013
January 11-12:
The Shawnee Mission East debate squad had an outstanding showing at the 6A State Debate tournament at Hutchinson High School this weekend. There are two divisions at state: 4-speaker and 2-speaker. In 4-speaker, 6 students represent each school and one team of two debates affirmative every round while another team of two debates negative. The 2-speaker division consists of traditional switch side debate where teams of two compete individually, alternating affirmative and negative each round.
SME won the state championship in the 4-speaker division with an 11-5 record and 31 of 48 ballots! The following students competed for East in the 4-speaker division: Karl Walter, Henry Walter, Ali Dastjerdi, Shrushti Mehta, Erika Levy, Taylor Thompson.
SME also did exceptionally well in the 2-speaker division. Each school is allowed to enter up to 4 teams in this division provided they qualify with a 50-50 win-loss record throughout the season. There were 80 teams in the 2 speaker division and all 4 East teams broke to elimination rounds, which has not happened in my years with this program. Congratulations to Ada Throckmorton and Utsa Ramaswami for placing 5th by advancing to octofinals (top 16), and to the teams of Jack Mitchell / Seth Myers, Michael Kennedy / Max Werner, and Liam Murphy / Sam Tulp for tying for 4th place by advancing to quarterfinals (top 8 teams).
January 4-5:
Congratulations to the Shawnee Mission East debaters for an outstanding showing at the Debate Coaches’ Invitational at Wichita East this past weekend. Debaters have to qualify to this tournament by receiving at least two bids throughout the season. Many schools are lucky to have any team qualify to DCI; SME qualified 6 teams, which is more than any other squad in the state!
This tournament consisted of the top 50 teams in Kansas (from all KSHSAA classifications). The following East teams placed in the top 10:
-Ada Throckmorton / Utsa Ramaswami- 2nd Place with a 6-1 record
-Ada Throckmorton- 8th speaker out of 102 debaters
-Liam Murphy / Sam Tulp- 9th place with a 5-2 record
The following teams also qualified and represented East at DCI:
Michael Kennedy / Max Werner
Chase Derusseau / Jamie McDonald
Karl Walter / Henry Walter
Jack Mitchell / Seth Myers
December 14-15:
Congratulations to the following SME Debaters for placing 2nd out of 7 schools at the 4-Speaker Regional tournament this weekend at Olathe Northwest! The top 3 schools at each regional qualify to the state tournament in January. We will still have four 2-speaker teams at the state tournament (the traditional switch side format), but in the 4-speaker division, each school who has qualified has one team who debates affirmative the entire tournament and another team who debates negative the entire tournament.
Taylor Thompson / Erika Levy
Ali Dastjerdi / Shrushti Mehta (these two teams shared the aff rounds and finished 4-2)
Karl Walter / Henry Walter (this was our neg team and they finished 5-1)
December 7-8:
Congratulations to the SME Debate squad for an outstanding showing at the East Kansas National Forensic League district debate tournament at Lawrence High this weekend! SME qualified 2 of the 3 spots out of East Kansas to the NFL national tournament in Birmingham this June! Congratulations to Liam Murphy and Sam Tulp for placing 1st with a 7-0 record and Karl Walter and Henry Walter for placing 3rd with a 6-1 record! Both teams qualified to nationals. 40 teams from the 15 schools in our NFL district competed for the top 3 spots, which qualify to nationals.
Also, congratulations to our debaters who placed in the novice division: Jack Eddy and Will Bledsoe placed 5th and Spencer Mitchell and Bhavish Dinakar placed 6th. Both teams finished with a 4-1 record.
November 30-December 1:
Congratulations to Sam Tulp and Liam Murphy for qualifying to nationals at the Kansas City NCFL district tournament at Aquinas this last weekend. Tulp and Murphy placed in the top 6 with a 4-1 record which means they will compete at the national tournament in Philadelphia over Memorial Day weekend.
Also, congratulations to Parker Mitchell and Jack Werner for advancing to quarterfinals in the open division at Lawrence High and placing 4th.
November 16-18:
Congratulations to the following SME Debate teams for placing last weekend:
St. Thomas Aquinas- 2nd in Sweepstakes out 12 schools
-Taylor Thompson / Erika Levy- 1st in Varsity Division*
-Chase Derusseau / Jamie McDonald- 2nd in Varsity Division*
-Jameson McGranahan / Josh Fowler- 4th in Varsity Division
*Thompson/Levy and Derusseau/McDonald “closed out” finals in varsity, which means the teams would have met in finals, but we have a squad policy that we don’t let East teams debate East teams if possible, so Thompson/Levy placed 1st over Derusseau/Thomspon because they were the higher seed.
-Congratulations to the following students for contributing to the sweeps award: Sarah Hellman, Alexandra Felman, Jack McDonald, Isaac Young, Matt Ferrel, Matt Kunin, Will Brownlee, Sara Muench
Topeka
-Shrushti Mehta and Ali Dastjerdi went 4-1 in the varsity division and earned a bid to DCI (Debate Coaches’ Invitational)
November 2-4:
Congratulations to the following SME Debate teams for placing last weekend:
KCKCC
-Michael Kennedy / Max Werner- Quarterfinalists
-Liam Murphy / Sam Tulp- Octofinalists!
Blue Valley
-Parker Mitchell / Sam Holloway- Quarterfinalists- Open Division
Lansing
-Sarah Hellman / Courtney Sharp- Semifinalists- Open Division
SME Novice Tournament
4-1 Record:
Dalilah Miller
Jeff Larabee / Julie God-Linn
Carlie Smith / Maddie Wilson
Alec Dean / Erik Harken
3-2 Record:
Wil Stephens / Dexter Durbin
Tess Iler / Nicholas Morgan
Taylor McDougall / Tevin Niang-Trost
Matt Bruyere / B Daves
Caroline Olson / Chrstine Rosa
Amy Sears / Mollie Mytinger
October 27-27:
Congratulations to the following SME Debate teams for placing last weekend:
Iowa Caucus
-Liam Murphy / Sam Tulp- Double Octofinalists!
Shawnee Mission Northwest- 3rd Place in Sweepstakes!
-Bhavish Dinakar / Spencer Mitchell- 1st- Novice, 5-0
-Jennifer Young / Ben McKissick-Hawley- 8th- Novice, 3-2
October 19-20:
Congratulations to the following SME Debate teams for placing last weekend:
Olathe South- the squad placed 3rd in sweepstakes!
-Taylor Thompson / Erika Levy- 4th/ Quarterfinals- Open
-Mitch Kerr / Ryan Friend- 1st/ Finalists- JV
Blue Valley North
-Bhavish Dinakar / Spencer Mitchell- 4th/ Quarterfinals- Novice
October 12-13:
Shawnee Mission North- 1st Place in Sweepstakes!
Congratulations to the SME Debate squad for placing 1st in sweeps out of 13 schools at the Shawnee Mission North invitational. East had more cumulative wins than any other school in attendance.
Individual awards:
-Barrett Cooper / Mitch Kerr- 1st in JV (finals)
-Will Brownlee (who debated maverick)- 4th in JV (quarterfinals)
-Team members contributing to sweepstakes: Erika Levy, Taylor Thompson, Josh Fowler, Courtney Sharp, Logan Bennion, Johnston Davis.
Wichita East:
-Liam Murphy / Sam Tulp- 3rd- Varsity (semifinals)
-Congratulations to Murphy/Tulp and Ada Throckmorton / Utsa Ramaswami, Chase Derusseau / Jamie McDonald, and Jack Mitchell / Seth Myers for all receiving their second DCI (Debate Coaches’ Invitational) bids! We now have 4 teams qualified to the DCI, which is more than any other school in Kansas!
Shawnee Mission South:
Congratulations to the following novice teams for placing at the Shawnee Mission South tournament:
-Calen Gilmore / Carlie Smith- 4th with a 4-1 record
-Erik Harken / Alexis Welch- 5th with a 4-1 record
Also finishing with winning records:
-Claire Gibbs / Keyli Kamin- 4-1
-Ellis Nepstad / Matt Bruyere- 3-2
-Tommy Sherk / Charlie Jenson- 3-2
October 5-6:
Olathe Northwest Invitational:
Congratulations to Karl Walter and Henry Walter for placing 3rd in the varsity division by advancing to semifinals and to Chase Derusseau and Jamie McDonald for placing 4th in varsity by advancing to quarterfinals. Both teams received a bid to the Debate Coaches’ Invitational in January.
Piper:
Also congratulations to Brad Ferrel and Ben McKissick-Hawley for placing 3rd in the novice division at the Piper invitational with a 4-1 record!
September 22:
EKNFL Novice Positive Experience Tournament @ SME:
Congratulations to our novice debaters for competing at their first tournament! With 115 teams, the East Kansas Novice kick-off was a blood bath, but it sounds like fun debate rounds and some learning experiences were had by all. There were four rounds of competition with 2 judges per debate. The following teams finished with winning records:
Winning 6 of 8 ballots:
- Jack Eddy / Taylor McDougal
Winning 5 of 3 ballots:
- Jennifer Young / Mae Heitemann
-Johnston Davis / Molly Pratt
- Bhavish Dinakar / Will Bledsoe
- Spencer Mitchell / Nick Morgan
Best Ballot Awards (these advanced debaters who judged were acknowledged for giving terrific feedback to the novices):
-Ada Throckmorton
-Liam Murphy
Olathe South Open Tournament:
-Josh Fowler / Courtney Sharp- 1st Place with a 5-0 record!
-Ali Dastjerdi / Shursti Mehta- 3rd Place with a 4-1 record!
September 14-15:
Washburn Rural- Congratulations to the SME Debate squad for placing 1st in sweepstakes (overall schools awards) out of 39 schools at the Washburn Rural Invitational. This means that SME had more cumulative wins than any other school in attendance. This was the first weekend of competition and traditionally, Washburn Rural is one of the largest and most competitive tournaments during the season in Kansas. This was also our fifth year in a row winning sweeps at this tournament.
Individual Awards:
-Liam Murphy / Sam Tulp- 6-0 in Varsity- 1st Seed / Quarterfinalists- 4th Place (DCI Bid)
-Michael Kennedy / Max Werner- 6-0 in Varsity- 2nd Seed / Quarterfinalists- 4th Place (DCI Bid)
-Jack Mitchell / Seth Myers- 4-2 in Varsity (DCI Bid)
-Ada Throckmorton / Utsa Ramaswami- 4-2 in Varsity (DCI Bid)
-Karl Walter / Henry Walter- 5-1 in Open / 1st Seed / Finalists- 2nd Place
-Chase Derusseau / Jamie McDonald- 4-2 in Open
*Tulp/Murphy and Kennedy/Werner both dropped in quarterfinals which means they tied for 4th place. There were 75 teams in the varsity division which means all 4 of our varsity teams received a bid to the DCI (Debate Coaches’ Invitational) in January. Teams must earn two bids throughout the season in order to qualify for DCI.
Speaker Awards:
-Ada Throckmorton- 4th in Varsity out of 150 debaters
-Liam Murphy- 5th in Varsity
-Sam Tulp- 6th in Varsity
-Henry Walter- 4th in Open out of 100 debaters
-Karl Walter- 5th in Open
Blue Valley Southwest-
Congratulations to Ali Dastjerdi and Shursti Mehta for going 4-1 and placing 6th in the Open Division at the Blue Valley Southwest Invitational on Saturday!