Speech and Debate team members at Evanston Township High School competed in tournaments during September to open their season at local and national events.
ETHS students participated in the Yale Invitational in New Haven, Connecticut, as well as the Illinois Congressional Debate Association tournament in Arlington Heights, both for the first time.
In the Chicago Debate League, ETHS seniors Carlos Taylor and Helena Guran reached the semifinal round, the best finish yet for a varsity ETHS team in the CDL.
ETHS junior Raja Archie came away with a win while ETHS sophomores Danny Frank-Siegel and Alex Joh-Jung finished with a winning record in their first ever varsity CDL tournament.
Two ETHS teams competed in the Mid-America Cup in West Des Moines, Iowa.
In the Lincoln-Douglas debate category, in a field of 144 debaters from 10 states, sophomore Danny Frank-Siegel finished 3-3 in his first varsity national tournament Carlos Taylor, Joey Schnide and Eric Weine advanced to elimination rounds. Carlos not only won the tournament, but was also named top speaker of the tournament, a separate and distinct honor.
All three seniors, by advancing to the round of 16, earned their first qualifying legs to the Tournament of Champions (which requires two qualifying legs to attend). Joey Schnide, by virtue of finishing his round of 32 debate first, earned ETHS’s first bid of the year.
In October the teams competed in Schaumburg’s Saxon Invitational, the Fenwick High School Invitational, and the Heart of Texas Invitational in Dallas, TX.
In Schaumburg, Joey Schnide won the varsity Lincoln-Douglas (LD) debate division. At Fenwick, sophomore Gabe Hull went 2-2 in his first ever varsity LD debate tournament; sophomore Naomi Lichter finished in third place in the novice LD division; and senior Blaise Filippini, sophomore Allison Grimsted, and freshman Gabi Senno all placed in the top six of their chambers in varsity Congressional Debate.
In the Heart of Texas, Joey Schnide and Eric Weine, competing in varsity LD debate, both advanced to the Round of 32 before losing on 2-1 decisions.
“We have now sent more students to tournaments this year than we did all of last year, an excellent sign of growth,” said ETHS debate coach Jeff Hannan.
“Rather than focus on one event as many schools do, our students access multiple styles of debate and public speaking and top-to-bottom excellence, excelling in all divisions and circuits of competition,” Mr. Hannan added.