Tournament Results

Seasons 2003-2005

19) Novice STATE CHAMPIONSHIPS:  (APRIL 15-16, 2005).  LHP Speech and Debate posted its strongest showing ever at the FFL Novice State Championships.  In one of the larger tournaments that the venue has ever had, Lake Highland brought one of its largest groups (27 students) to the tournament.   And Here are the highlights:

*The Policy Debate Teams of Katie Morehead/Brendan Green and Arianna Guzman/Andrew Bodiford took on the state's best policy programs including Carrollton, Miami Palmetto, Pinecrest, and of Course Celebration.   Both of the teams advanced to break-rounds.
*The TEAM of Brendan Green and Katie Morehead brought Lake Highland its first-ever STATE CHAMPIONSHIP in the school's history IN POLICY DEBATE!!
*The Team of Arianna Guzman and 7th Grade Student Andrew Bodiford (in his first-ever competitive tournament) brought a 4-1 record into quarterfinals (top 8) before hitting Katie/Brendan (who were coached over).
In the Other Events:
STEVEN CAMPISI:  TOP SPEAKER AND STATE RUNNER-UP, LINCOLN-DOUGLAS
LUCA FERRARA:  QUARTERFINALIST - LINCOLN-DOUGLAS
MICHAEL MCGINN:  5TH PLACE - STUDENT CONGRESS, TOP TEN PRESIDING OFFICER
CHASE SANDERS:  FINALIST - STUDENT CONGRESS
KENDALL JOHNSON: FINALIST - STUDENT CONGRESS, TOP TEN PRESIDING OFFICER
VARUN HIPPALGAONKAR:  STATE CHAMPION - FOREIGN EXTEMP.
SHAZ JAFRI:  STATE RUNNER-UP - DOMESTIC EXTEMP
JEETEN JAMNADAS:  6TH PLACE - DOMESTIC EXTEMP
CHARLIE DOYLE:  SEMIFINALIST - FOREIGN EXTEMP
MEGAN GLASS:  4TH PLACE - ORIGINAL ORATORY
ANDY NUTTING:  3RD PLACE - DRAMATIC INTERPRETATION AND SEMIFINALIST - ORAL INTERPRETATION
CHRIS HARDING:  SEMIFINALIST - DRAMATIC INTERPRETATION
TRACI GORDON: SEMIFINALIST - DECLAMATION
PATRICK HURLBURT:  4TH PLACE - HUMOROUS INTERPRETATION

At this year's Novice States, LHP produced 2 STATE CHAMPIONS, 2 STATE RUNNER-UPS, 12 STATE FINALISTS AND 18 OUT OF OUR 27 ENTRIES COMPETED IN THE FINAL ROUNDS OF THEIR RESPECTIVE EVENTS.  No team in the state of Florida has had this kind of dominance in so many events. 

Over the last four years at Florida State Championship tournaments, the team has produced:
*State Championships in Policy Debate, Lincoln Douglas, Two in Foreign Extemp, One in Domestic Extemp, One in Original Oratory, One in Dramatic Interpretation, One in Humorous Interpretation, One in Oral Interpretation, and One in Student Congress.  We have had State Runner-Ups in Lincoln-Douglas, Two in Foreign Extemp, Three in Domestic Extemp, One in Public Forum Debate, One in Humorous Interp, Two in Student Congress, One in Dramatic Interp, and One in Oral Interp.  There are only two events in forensics that Lake Highland Students have neither won championships or finished in 2nd place in:  (Duo Interpretation and Declamation).  Perhaps we can take care of that next year.

That makes: (In the past four years, combined Varsity and Novice State Championships)
*10 STATE CHAMPIONSHIPS
*12 STATE RUNNER-UPS
*TOO MANY STATE FINALISTS TO LIST

18) 1st/Year and 2nd/Year Debate National Championships @ Woodward Academy - Atlanta, GA March 31-April 3rd, 2005):  Lake Highland sent its best novice and 2nd year debaters to the Novice/JV National Championships this past weekend in Atlanta to compete against the nations best underclassmen.  The Lincoln-Douglas debaters once again pulled off amazing accomplishments.  Here da' Lowdown.
*Junior first year debater Steven Campisi proved once again that he is among the best 1st-year debaters in the nation by advancing to the final round of competition and finishing as National Runner-Up in the 1st year division.
*Sophomore Najeeb Khuda also figures to be among the nations best juniors next season.  In the 2nd year division, Najeeb came out of preliminary competition as the TOP SPEAKER and TOP SEED overall in the tournament.   Najeeb advanced to the Quarterfinal Round (TOP 8 in the Nation). 
*Sophomore Sophie Grace was awarded 9th Speaker in the tournament and finished with a 3-3 record
*Freshman Hana Ahmed, despite a 2-4 record was awarded 8th Speaker in the 1st Year Division
*Freshman Luca Ferrara finished with a 4-2 record and was One Combined Speaker point from advancing to the elimination rounds.

The Future looks bright for LHP's LD squad, currently ranked #11 in the nation and obviously looking to crack the top 10 next year.  Congratulations also in store for Michael Holzer who found out over the weekend that he will compete once again against the top 70 LDers in the Nation at the Tournament of Champions in Lexington, KY.

17) CFL Grand Finals:  (March 11-12, 2005): Though constricted by graduation that left all of our seniors and most of our juniors out of participation in the CFL league this year, the freshman and sophomores carried more than their weight and produced one of the most successful qualifiers in team history, qualifying a near record 15 students to the national championships in Milwaukee.  Here are the qualifiers.

*Freshman tandem Katie Morehead and Arianna Guzman qualified in Policy Debate.  They earned the final qualifying spot with a ONE SPEAKER POINT advantage over their teammates Brendan Green and Claire Ziegler.
*The Lincoln-Douglas team continued its remarkable run by qualifying a record 3 of the 6 LD debaters to the national championships.   Sophomores Sophie Grace and JR Thorsen and first-year junior Steven Campisi edged out some brutally tough competition in order to earn their spots.

*Also qualifying:
-Harrison Gordon (Dramatic Performance)
-Rowena Gasmen (Dramatic Performance)
-Jennifer Dever (Student Congress)
-Erica Castelo (Original Oratory)
-Logan Altman (Oral Interpretation)
-Samantha Perrotta and Andy Nutting (Duo Interpretation)
-Jordan Rubin (Extemp)
-Charlie Doyle (Extemp)
-Shaz Jafri (Extemp)

The most qualifiers the team ever has earned to CFL Nationals is 16, and that was in a year where our juniors and seniors could all compete.   This was an amazing accomplishment and the number of qualifiers was second only to Interp machine Trinity Prep.

16) Florida State Championships (March 4-5, 2005):  Lake Highland sent 12 students to the Florida State Championships this past weekend.  Some of the Highlights.
*Harrison Gordon advanced to the final round of competition in Humorous Interpretation, finishing in 6th place overall.
*Rowena Gasmen advanced to the final round of competition in Dramatic Interpretation, finishing in 6th place overall.
*Freshman sensation Patrick Hurlburt advanced to the Semifinals in HI (top 12)
*Junior Logan Altman, who was a late addition to the field, advanced to Semifinals in DI (top 12)
*Sophomore Jordan Rubin advanced to the Semifinals of Foreign Extemp (top 12)
*Junior Transfer Erica Castelo advanced to the Final Round of Original Oratory and finished in 4th place in the State.
*Senior Brent Bielski, in perhaps his last career tournament advanced to Quarterfinals of LD before dropping on a 2-1 decision.

15) Harvard Invitational (February 18-22, 2005:  Cambridge, MA):  Over 3500 kids from over 600 schools from across the country descended upon Cambridge, MA for the annual Harvard Invitational.  Harvard is by far the largest tournament that LHP competes in during the season, larger than both CFL and NFL nationals and 3 times the size of Blue Key.   Because of the sheer numbers, it is also one of the most difficult tournaments to advance to break rounds.  LHP speech and debate had several notable, team record - breaking performances at this year's edition.  Los Highlitos.
Half of Lake Highland's entry was in Student Congress.  The team traveled 15 competitors to compete in a tournament that featured over 400 competitors from around the country.  We broke half.
*Senior Morgan Whitworth, capping off a stellar four-year debate career advanced to the Super Congress Session (top 24 out of over 400).  This was Morgan's second consecutive final round at Harvard.
*Semifinalists included Junior Kendall Johnson, Junior Jennifer Dever, Junior Sara Rajaram,  and Freshmen Varun Hippalgaonkar, Michael McGinn, and Chase Sanders.   The team has never had a freshman in break rounds at Harvard.  This year we had four.

Senior Emily Vaughan capped her four year debate career in style by advancing to the Final Round of Original Oratory.  (Top 6 out of 280 competitors).  Emily has been in final rounds at 4 national tournaments this year.  She is the first IE competitor in team history to be in a final round of Harvard and is among the top 20 Orators in the nation.
*Junior transfer Erica Castelo advanced to Octafinals (top 48) as well in Original Oratory.

In other IE events:
Rowena Gasmen advanced to Quarterfinals in Dramatic Interpretation (top 24 out of over 300 competitors).
Logan Altman advanced to Double-Octafinals in Dramatic Interpretation
Freshman sensation Patrick Hurlburt advanced to Octafinals (top 48 out of over 250) in Humorous Interpretation.

And in Lincoln-Douglas, the #13 ranked squad put on another impressive performance in the unreasonably huge national pool.
*Senior Mike Holzer advanced to Double Octafinals (top 32 out of 350 LD competitors).  He had a 5-1 preliminary record, was the #12 speaker in the tournament and the 15th seed overall after prelims.   He dropped on yet another 2-1 decision in yet another bid round.
*Sophomore Mike Saldarriaga, in his first tournament on the topic, advanced to Quarterfinals (top 8 out of 300 competitors) in JVLD.  He had a 5-1 preliminary record.  Mike's Quarterfinals effort was the best by a Lake Highland LDer in 5 years.   Only Pat Fitch's 2nd place finish in 2000 was better.
*Sophomore Sophie Grace finished with a 5-1 preliminary record, was 19th seed out of the field of 300 and lost on a 2-1 decision in double-octafinals.  Grace and Saldarriaga, while quite humbled by the plethora of solid national Public Forum Debaters in recent months, seemed totally at ease in their natural habitat.  Both have been in deep break rounds at their last three national tournaments in LD.
*Senior Brent Bielski finished with a 4-2 record and was denied break rounds by opponent's winning percentage.
*Sophomore JR Thorsen finished with a 4-2 record and barely finished out of the break rounds due to speaker point total.

All in all, Lake Highland had nearly half of their traveling team in break-rounds and set three different team records:  Best finish in an Individual Event (Vaughan).  Most breaks in Student Congress (Seven), and Most LDers in Break Rounds (Three).  Vaughan, Holzer, and Saldarriaga each won silver bowls that hold a breath-taking 1500 M & Ms combined..........Marvelous.

Other than a couple of state championships, possibly a Tournament of Champions, and three national championships, our season is nearly complete. 

***Lake Highland Speech/Debate has a number of competitors currently ranked by sources among the best in the nation.  From unofficial rankings from the National Debate Rankings in Lincoln-Douglas and the Rankings of Individual events on www.forensicsonline.net.  Here are a list of currently ranked LHP competitors:
Tyler Shami - Ranked #1 in the Nation in Student Congress
Morgan Whitworth - Ranked #2 in the Nation in Student Congress
Laura Stewart - Ranked #3 in the Nation in Original Oratory
Emily Vaughan - Ranked #20 in the Nation in Original Oratory
Rowena Gasmen - Ranked #6 in the Nation in Dramatic Interpretation
Rowena Gasmen - Ranked #25 in the Nation in Oral Interpretation
Maygen Lafata - Ranked #30 in the Nation in Oral Interpretation

In Lincoln Douglas
The Team is currently ranked #11 nationally among LD Programs
Brent Bielski is ranked #68
Michael Holzer is ranked #78

14) NFL National Qualifiers @ Palm Beach Lakes HS (West Palm Beach, FL, February 4-6, 2005):  The Florida Panther District, one of 4 Florida Districts had its qualifier for NFL Nationals in Philadelphia, PA this Summer.  Only 2 competitors in each event earn a qualification to Nationals and only 8 competitors in each event in the state of Florida earn the right to compete for a national title.  There were some surprises on both the good end and the bad end.   Lake Highland had an excellent showing nonetheless.

*In the Student Congress Competition, held in the morning before the overall tournament, Two Senate Seats and Two House Seats were up for Grabs.  In the Senate, Senior Tyler Shami, ranked #1 in the U.S., qualified to Nationals, while in the House, Mike Holzer was voted 2nd Alternate.  Ironically, #4 in the nation, Morgan Whitworth, who won the judge vote, failed to pick up the student vote and didn't qualify for the national competition.
*In the tournament at large, some solid performances against very difficult competition that brought the traditional district of Orlando, Jacksonville, and Gainesville together with all of the Palm Beach County teams.  It makes Florida Panther one of the toughest and most competitive districts in the nation.
*In Lincoln-Douglas, Seniors Mike Holzer and Morgan Whitworth stayed alive until the latest rounds of competition.  Mike finished with a 5-2 record and 5th place overall, losing to eventual qualifier Kelsey Averill from Celebration.  Morgan finished with a 6-2 record and finished in 4th place overall, losing to eventual champion Tara Tedrow from Celebration.
*The team of Steven Campisi and Najeeb Khuda finished in 3rd place in Public Forum and were named 1st alternates to nationals.
*The EXTEMP TEAM, in its rebuilding phase since the graduation of nationally-ranked competitors, Varun Akula and Ania Amador, recorded its strongest performance of the season.  Finishing ALL SIX of its competitors in the top 7 of both FX and DX, earning 2 of the 4 spots to Nationals and a 1st alternate spot.  And all with a team that is dominated by Freshman.
Junior ARLIE HUDSON, in her best performance ever, was one of two national qualifiers in Domestic Extemporaneous Speaking.  Arlie will be joined in Philadelphia by FRESHMAN VARUN HIPPALGAONKAR, who earned one of the spots in Foreign Extemporaneous Speaking.  Varun accumulated a combined 4 ranks from 3 judges in the final round, while Arlie accumulated 6.  In the last three years, LHP has sent at least TWO extempers to big nationals.  Also, in Domestic Extemp, FRESHMAN SHAZ JAFRI finished as 1st Alternate to nationals.  The remaining members, Charlie Doyle (FX), Jeeten Jamnadas (DX), and Jordan Rubin (FX) all participated in the final round of competiton.
*Finally, FRESHMAN PATRICK HURLBURT set two individual records for LHP forensics with his performance at NFL Qualifiers.  Patrick is the only Interper in School History to have qualified to NFL Nats and is one of two Freshman in school history to qualify to NFL Nationals (Varun Hippalgaonkar being the other).  Patrick earned straight 1's in his preliminary rounds in Humorous Interpretation.
Congratulations to all 4 of LHP's qualifiers, to Rowena and Morgan for maintaining their sense of humor, and to the Oratory Squad for being the best squad around.  Oratories will have their place in the Cold Sun or Clouds of Cambridge Massachusetts hopefully. 

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13) Barkley Forum @ Emory University (January 28-31, 2005):  An ICE STORM turned the prestigious Barkley Forum into a lottery-based free-for-all, with lottery-based breaks.  Nonetheless, we still had a few kids win the lotto and advance to break-rounds.

*Senior Tyler Shami finished as Runner-Up of the Competition and was Presiding Officer of the Final Round.  Shami has been in the top 5 in all but one of his national tournament outings this year and is still ranked #1 in the United States in Student Congress.  Senior Counter-Part Morgan Whitworth advanced to the Final Round.
*Junior Harrison Gordon's Cumulative rank of 4 was good enough to break to Semifinals at the ultra-difficult Emory Interpretation extravaganza.  Emory combines the best DI's and HI's in the country.  A top 12 finish in the event is against the nation's very best.
*The Junior Tandem of Ashley Berk and Jennifer dever broke to double-octafinals (top 32) in Public Forum.
*Senior Mike Holzer finished with a 3-1 record and was within 2 speaker points of a TOC bid in Lincoln-Douglas.

*My condolences for those who had to suffer through this tournament.  You can never predict what mother nature has in store.   At least the Barkley Forum wasn't held in the Aceh Province of Indonesia.   Optimism can be found in any situation.

12) FFL Qualifers @ Celebration (January 22nd, 2005):  Our District held its state qualifiers this past weekend at Celebration High School.  The top 7 individuals or teams in each event qualify to the State Championships held in early March.  Here are our qualifiers:
*Brent Bielski (LD)
*Sophie Grace and Michael Saldarriaga (PFD)
*Shaz Jafri (FX)
*Jordan Rubin (FX)
*Charlie Doyle (FX)
*Jeeten Jamnadas (DX)
*Tarun Mathur (DX)
*Eric Yarnell (OO)
*Erica Castello (OO)
*Samantha Favis (OO)
*Hilary Whitworth (OO)
*Rowena Gasmen (DI)
*Harrison Gordon (HI)
*Patrick Hurlburt (HI)
*Patrick Hurlburt and Sam Perrotta (Duo)
*Andy Nutting and Emily Schock (Duo)
*Luca Ferrara (1st Alternate - LD)
*Logan Altman (1st Alternate - DI)
*Rowena Gasmen (1st Alternate - OI)
*Michael McGinn (1st Alternate - Student Congrss)
*Pierre Elias (2nd Alternate - Student Congress)

Congratulations to all of our State Qualifiers.  We qualified 60% of our entries.  Excellent.

11) Crestian Classic Fort Lauderdale, FL(January 13-16, 2005):  The Crestian Classic is one of the Southeastern United States's Largest and most competitive national tournaments.  It featured over 1000 competitors from 70+ schools and 15 states from around the land.  Lake Highland Prep recorded the most impressive performance in its history by being declared TEAM CHAMPIONS of the DEBATE SWEEPSTAKES.  There were impressive individual performances galore at this highly competitive national tournament.  The Highlights.

Lake Highland's Lincoln-Douglas contingent of Mike Holzer, Brent Bielski, Madison Smith, Morgan Whitworth, JR Thorsen, Najeeb Khuda, and Steven Campisi recorded the LD squad's BEST PERFORMANCE EVER.

*Seniors Brent Bielski and Mike Holzer closed out the final round of competition and were declared CO-CHAMPIONS of Lincoln-Douglas.  The two venerable seniors were a combined 20-1 against the national competition.  Bielski dropped only one ballot in the entire tournament.  Both received bids to the National Tournament of Champions in Kentucky.
*Sophomore JR Thorsen also received his first-ever TOC bid and advanced to Semifinals of the competition before being coached over in a match-up with Bielski.
*Senior Morgan Whitworth, ranked #2 in the U.S. in Student Congress, proved to be an accomplished LD competitor as well.   Whitworth advanced to the Octafinals and received a partial bid to the TOCs
*Sophomore Najeeb Khuda and Senior Madison Smith also advanced into the break-rounds of the competiton before having the misfortune of being paired against other Lake Highland LDers in the double-octafinals and subsequent coach-overs kept them from advancing further.
*The Lincoln-Douglas Team recorded a combined 45-10 record, cleared 6 of its seven competitors to break-rounds, received 3 of the 8 TOC bids offered at the tournament and had 3 of the tournament's 4 semifinalists.
*With the graduation of 2 top-ten national competitors in Ryan O'Hara and Josh Marshall, and the loss to extradition of one of the nation's most talented underclassmen in Harriett Levett, the LD team's re-building year has achieved final round close-outs at Florida's two largest and most prestigious national tournaments. 
*The impressive performance by the LD squad produced for Lake Highland the Overall Team Championship of the Crestian Classic in Debate.

*The IE and Congress squad also recorded amazing performances at the Crestian Classic and finished 3rd overall in the Team Sweepstakes against national powerhouses from Iowa, Texas, Illinois, Minnesota, and of course Florida.  Here are the highlights.
*The ridiculously deep Oratory Squad recorded another set of amazing performances.   Above all:
*Senior Captain Laura Stewart was declared Champion of Original Oratory.  This is Laura's First-Ever National Tournament Championship.
*Senior Compadre Emily Vaughan advanced to the final round of a national tournament for the 3rd time this year, finishing in 6th place overall against over 100 national oratories.
*Sophomore Rachel Pohl broke to quarterfinals.  This is Rachel's first break in national competition.

*The Diaper Dandies in Extemporaneous Speaking also recorded impressive performances:
*Sophomore Jordan Rubin, Quarterfinalist, International Extemp
*Junior Arlie Hudson, Quarterfinalist, U.S. Extemp
*Freshman Shaz Jafri, Quarterfinalist, U.S. Extemp
*Freshman Varun Hippalgaonkar, Quarterfinalist in both U.S. and International Extemp

In Interpretation Events:
*Junior David Rissman, Semifinalist in Dramatic Interp
*Junior Rowena Gasmen, Quarterfinalist in both Dramatic and Oral Interp
*Junior Harrison Gordon, Quarterfinalist in both Humorous Interp and Duo Interp.
*Junior Wesley Conner, Quarterfinalist in Duo Interp
*Senior Maygen Lafata, Quarterfinalist in Oral Interp
*Junior Logan Altman, Quarterfinalist in Oral Interp

And Finally, in Student Congress:
Junior Jennifer Dever advanced to the final round in the competition and finished in 3rd Place overall out of over 120 Congress Competitors.
Senior Christopher Gruenberg, in one stunning performance after another, advanced to the Super Congress Finals (top 20) out of the 120 strong field.  His activity in the Final round leads one to believe that the judges were asleep and overlooked his electrifying domination of the field.

*Congratulations to all of those who competed and helped to chaperone the trip.  Lake Highland continues to construct a large shimmering ocean of reflected glory.  Way to go squad.  LHP prepares now for State Championship competition this Saturday and will muscle up against the nations best in two weeks at the Barkley Forum at Emory University.  Your thoughts and prayers, as always, are appreciated.

10) Lake Highland CFL (December 18th, 2004):  Lake Highland Hosted its first CFL in recent memory this past Saturday.  The Local CFL district brought its largest contingent of competitors in the last few years to LHP.  A special thank you for the endless efforts of Pam Jafri, Val Woska and the crew for putting the show on.  Besides serving as tournament host, Lake Highland Speech and Debate also fielded a handful of competitors at this the 4th CFL qualifier of the season.  Some of the notable highlights:

*The Policy Teams ran another extraordinary record at yet another CFL.  The Fab Four, doing a little partner swap combined for a 7-1 record and earned the top three speaker spots at the tournament.  The team of Arianna Guzman and Katie Morehead placed second overall and posted a perfect 4-0 record.  Guzman was the TOP SPEAKER at the tournament, while Katie was third.  The team of Claire Ziegler and Brendan Green posted a 3-1 record while Claire Ziegler was 2nd speaker.  Ziegler has been either the top or 2nd speaker at the last two tournaments.
*In Novice Lincoln-Douglas, Freshman sensation Luca Ferrara posted a perfect 4-0 record and was declared CHAMPION OF THE TOURNAMENT, in the largest LD field of local competitors in some time.  Luca was also 4th speaker in a field of more than 40 competitors.  Other Freshman sensation Hana Ahmed finished with a 3-1 record and was TOP SPEAKER in the field.  A special shot out to Andrew Starling and Robert Ferrero who competed in their first-ever tournament.
*The Diaper Dandies do it again.   Varun Hippalgoanker, freshman,  racked up his third consecutive top three finish at the local level with a 2nd place overall finish in Student Congress, while Shaz Jafri, freshman, finished in 2nd place for the 2nd tournament in a row in extemporaneous speaking. 
*In refreshing fashion, Harrison Gordon's "unfunny" Humorous Interp piece was funny enough to win the tournament in Dramatic Performance.  Rowena Gasmen finished in 2nd place with her much acclaimed DI. 

Congratulations to all those who competed and especially all those who helped put on a quite successful tournament.  The team travels to Fort Lauderdale on January 13th for another Crestian Classic, the 2nd of the national tournaments in Florida.  We will be bringing our largest contingent ever (since the entry floodgates opened two years ago), and hoping to perform as well as we have in recent years.

9) Hendrick Hudson Bump Invitational (December 9-11, 2004): LHP traveled a whopping 4 members of its LD squad to the annual Bump Invitational in Westchester County, New York.  The Bump featured 115 competitors from around the country (mainly the Northeast), but featured its largest and most competitive contingent in the last few years.  LHP held its own against some of the best competition in the nation.

*Senior Mike Holzer kept his nationals break record perfect (excepting Glenbrooks) this season by advancing to the double-octafinals round of competition before bowing out to the tournaments #3 seed on a 2-1 decision.
*Senior Brent Bielski completed prelims with a 4-1 record and advanced to the Octafinals (top 16) round of competition dropping on a 2-1 decision.  This is Brent's first partial bid in national competition.
*Junior Steven Campisi, who in his first year has wrecked JV pools all over the land, participated in his first-ever Varsity national tournament and was one speaker point from breaking to the double-octafinal round.   He finished with a 3-2 record against very talented competition.

8)   Princeton Classic (December3-5, 2004):  A team of 7 LDers and 1 Public Forum Tandum competed at the Princeton Classic held at Princeton University over the weekend.  Large fields of over 175 LDers in both divisions competed, featuring competition from all over the eastern seaboard.  Lake Highland's squad put out on of their better per capita performances of the season.

Los Highlights:
*Senior Mike Holzer became the FIRST-EVER LHP competitor to advance to break rounds in two separate debate events in the same tournament.  Holzer was an Octafinalist, after a stellar 5-1 preliminary record and top 10 seed out of 175 competitors in the Varsity LD pool, and Holzer teamed up with Morgan Whitworth to advance to Quarterfinals in Public Forum Debate.
*Sophomore Najeeb Khuda, FINALLY, got the break he deserved, by advancing to Double-Octafinals in Varsity Lincoln-Douglas.  Najeeb was 6th speaker in the tournament that featured over 175 competitors and had the misfortunate of hitting his senior teammate Holzer in the Double-Octafinal round.  He was subsequently coached over.
*The youngsters on the JV LD squad continued the dominance that they illustrated at the Blue Key tournament.  Out of 160+ JVLD competitors, all three of our entries finished in the top 20.  Steven Campisi, who has posted a team record 34-2 record since the Yale Invitational at the beginning of October was 3rd Seed and a perfect 6-0 after preliminaries.  He advanced to the Octafinal round of the tournament before bowing out on a controversial 2-1 decision.  Michael Saldarriaga, after his Blue Key Co-Championship (that he shared with Campisi) finished preliminaries with a 5-1 record and a 16th seed.  He, too, advanced to the Octafinals (top 16) out of the 160+ field.  And Sophie Grace advanced to double-octafinals (top 32) after a stellar 5-1 preliminary record.  The JV team as a whole finished with a 16-2 preliminary record and was a perfect 3 for 3 in breaks at the 2nd consecutive tournament.

7) The Glenbrooks (November 19-22, 2004):   Glenbrooks in Chicago is the largest high school-sponsored tournament in the country and considered the most competitive forensics venue in this illustrious hegemonic land.  Over 300 schools and 2000 competitors from every top speech and debate program was in attendance.  Lake Highland's team recorded its finest performance ever at this year's Silver Anniversary edition of the tournament.  The Highlights:
*Special Note:::  Coach of Champions Michael Holzer has taken credit for the following successes that you are about to see.  If you see him in the hallway, drop down on your knees and worship him, but please be sure that you don't look at him directly in the eye.  It would be regarded as irreverance, a sign of disrespect and is the type of thing would only impose an unexpected wrath of terror on your soul from an unexpectedly short-tempered choir of angels that surround his aura.
*Senior Morgan Whitworth recovered from a strange drop in Semifinals at Blue Key by Winning the Student Congress Championship at the Glenbrooks.  This is Morgan's first-ever Congress championship.  This is Lake Highland's 2nd National Tournament Championship in Congress this year (and almost three considering Shami and Whitworth were 2nd and 3rd at Yale). 
*Senior Chris Gruenberg, after two years of near misses at the Glenbrooks, exorcised the demons and reversed the curse.   Gruenberg was awarded best presiding officer of prelims, was elected Presiding Officer of the Final Round, and his legislation was voted the best legislation out of its prelim chamber.  This was the finest performance of the young lad's four year legislative career.....thus far.
*Junior Jennifer Dever advanced to the final round of Student Congress.  Dever has been in finals of three separate national tournaments this year and is the heir apparent to the heir apparents (Whitworth and Shami and Gruenberg) of the original LHP legislator (Swartsel).

*The Interp Team broke off a whole lot of somethin' somethin' at the GBN.  Some of the Highlights:
**Junior Rowena Gasmen has emerged as one of the greatest Interp talents in Lake Highland history this year.  In Dramatic Interp, Rowena competed against the nation's best and once again proved that she is one of the top 5 Dramatic Interpers in the United States.  Rowena finished 3rd in DI and has been in the final round of EVERY National Tournament that she has competed in this year.  She also was a Semifinalist in OI (Top 12) (Prose/Poetry). 
**Junior Logan Altman pulled off the finest performance(s) of his young career.  Altman joined Gasmen as the only two Lake Highland competitors to EVER break in both of their events at the Glenbrooks.   Altman was a Quarterfinalist in both DI and OI and was fractions from semifinals in both events.  Realize that a Quarterfinals break at the Glenbrooks is against the very best competition in the United States. 
**Senior Maygen Lafata completed the Prose/Poetry Sweep at the toughest tournament in the land by registering a quarterfinal break herself.  Lafata has been one of America's top OIers for two years running.
**And....in a remarkable performance, Senior Eric Yarnell, in only his 2nd-ever out-of-state national tournament, advanced to Quarterfinals in Original Oratory.  Yarnell marks the fourth different Oratory on our team to be in deep break rounds at a competitive national tournament.  The Oratory Fab Four have registered a flurry of awards and should be considered as one of the best and deepest group of Orators in the Nation.  Laura Stewart, Emily Vaughan, and Samantha Favis ALL missed Quarterfinals by ONE cumulative point.  10 rank points got you to Quarters, all three had 11.
*While not the finest hour for the debaters, solid performances were put out by all involved.
**Novice Policy Debaters Katie Morehead and Brendan Green finished with a respectable 3-3 record in a policy-rich competitive tournament.
**The other half of the Debate FAB FOUR, Claire Ziegler and Arianna Guzman finished with a 4-2 record and missed Quarterfinals (top 8) by 2 cumulative speaker points.
**JV LDer JR Thorsen comprised a 4-2 record and also missed the Octafinals of the competition by 2 speaker points.
**JVLDer Najeeb Khuda (the best LDer in the country that nobody knows) finished with a 3-3 record but was awarded 9th speaker overall in a tournament that featured nearly 100 competitors.
**Senior Varsity LDer Brent Bielski won three consecutive rounds to finish a respectable 4-3 against the best LDers in the country.  It was the 2nd best performance registered by any LDer in the state of Florida (Tied Actually).

*Special Thanks to Gail Holiday and Harry Morehead for helping to orchestrate the largest team we've ever taken to the Glenbrooks.  It ran quite smoothly and I'm almost 92% sure that we brought back everyone that we took up there.  Pictures from the tournament will be posted in the next few days.  Happy Holidays from the Articulatin' Highlanders.

6) Cypress Creek CFL:  (November 13, 2004):  The LHP speech and debate team competed in the third installment of the CFL qualifiers this past Saturday on the campus of Cypress Creek high school.  The young team pulled off a number of fantastic performances.  Here da' highlights:

*Jennifer Dever, junior Congressperson extraordinaire pulled off the incredible.  In the storied 3 1/4 year history of the Lake Highland Student Congress, which includes  Championships at nearly every venue in the U.S., the team had never captured a 1st Place Trophy at a local CFL.  Dever bucked the trend, with our first-ever CFL championship in Student Congress. 
*The young extempers continue to shine.  After the Rubin-Hudson close-out at Colonial, Jordan Rubin was able to secure a 3rd place trophy at the Cypress Creek event. Not to be outdone, Freshman Shaz Jafri, in only his 3rd competitive tournament, pulled in a 2nd Place performance that featured three consecutive 1st place rankings.  Jafri marks the fourth LHP extemper this year to finish in the top three amongst the local competition (which includes three 1st place titles). All this in the post-Akula/Amador/Ciarlo/Geary era. 
*1st-Year Oratory Megan Glass finished in 2nd Place overall in Original Oratory.  LHP has had 7 different Oratories win awards this year in local and/or national competition.
*Junior David Rissman in his first CFL of the Season, pulled off a third place trophy in Dramatic Performance against august competition.  Rissman is competing for only the 2nd time all season
*Logan Altman finished in 3rd Place in Oral Interpretation.

The Next CFL is HOSTED by Lake Highland Preparatory and will be on Saturday December 18th. We hope those will come by and experience the event.  It is the only time this year that such a competition will be in our own backyard.

5) Florida Blue Key (November 5-7, 2004):  Florida Blue Key at the University of Florida is the largest National Tournament offered in the Southeastern United States.  This year featured nearly 1700 competitors from 130+ high schools from as far away as Texas, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts (though dominated by Florida schools).  For the third consecutive year, the Lake Highland Team performed remarkably well.  And for a few of the highlights.

*The Team as a whole Finished Third Overall out of the 130+ teams from around the country.  This is the 3rd consecutive top three sweepstakes finish in the largest national tournament in the Southeast. 

*In lincoln-Douglas, 6 out of our 8 competitors made it to break rounds.
In Varsity, Senior Brent Bielski took in a 5-1 record to Double-Octas (top 32), while sophomore JR Thorsen also advanced to Double-Octas

The Novices Flat-Out Owned the Blue Key tournament, and did so in record-breaking fashion.

*Junior Steven Campisi and Sophomore Michael Saldarriaga had a combined 22-0 record and were declared CO-CHAMPIONS of the tournament.  Steven was the 1st overall seed and Michael was the 3rd.
Steven has won a team record 22 Consecutive LD rounds dating back to the prelims of the Yale tournament.
*Sophomore Sophie Grace advanced to Quarterfinals of the tournament where she had the misfortune to hit one of her own teammates.  If she had not been coached over, she may have won the tournament as well.
*Freshman Hana Ahmed advanced to the Double-Octafinals in her first-ever national tournament break
*Freshman Luca Ferrara finished his 2nd-ever tournament with a 3-3 record and lost in a bubble round that would have given the LHP novices a perfect 5-0 record in breaks.
*As a team, the LHP novice LDers had a combined 35-8 record, our top three LDers had a combined 28-2 record.  The re-build of the post-O'Hara and Marshall era has begun.  Obviously, the coaching expertise of one Mike Holzer was the INDISPENSABLE factor in the success of these novices.

In other Events:

*Senior Tyler Shami managed to finish 5th in the 2nd Largest Student Congress in the Nation, and did so by giving only One Speech the entire tournament.  I'm sure that this is unprecedented.  He was awarded two separate BEST PRESIDING OFFICER awards, and Presided over the Final Round.
*The Student Congress Team scored 6 out of 9 breaks in Prelims, including:  Morgan Whitworth, Jennifer Dever, Ishan Asokan, Chris Gruenberg, and FRESHMAN Kate Woska.
*Jordan Rubin and FRESHMAN sensation Varun Hippalgoanker advanced to quarterfinals in Foreign Extemp

*The Oratories are the Dominant portion of this team and may be one of the deepest Oratory squads in the Nation.
*Seniors Laura Stewart and Emily Vaughan made it to the final round of competition, finishing 3rd and 5th respectively.
*Junior Samantha Favis and Senior Eric Yarnell advanced to Semifinals out of an Oratory field of over 100 competitors.  Lake Highland Orators had 4 of the top 10 spots in a competitive national field.
*Sophomore Hilary Whitworth missed breaks by speaker points, while Sophomore Rachel Pohl and Junior Ashley Berk missed breaks by one cumulative point.  LHP was within a couple of ranks of taking 7 out of the 24 quarterfinal spots.

*In Interp, Junior Rowena Gasmen once again proved that she is one of the top Dramatic Interpers in the Nation, finishing 3rd in an incredibly competitive field.  Ironically, the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th place finishers in DI at Blue Key were the top three places at the Yale Invitational in October.

Other Interp Breaks include:
*Harrison Gordon and Wesley Conner (Quarters, Duo)
*Harrison Gordon (Quarters, HI)
*Rowena Gasmen, Logan Altman, and Maygen Lafata (Quarters, OI)

*With the Exception of Policy Debate and Domestic Extemp, Lake Highland had competitors in break-rounds of every possible event in forensics.  Over One-Half of Lake Highland's team was in break-rounds.  Special Thanks to Terri Sanders and Gail Holiday who handled all of the administrative tasks for the weekend, to Patrick Fitch and Rachelle Cruz for flying down from Baltimore to help with the Team, to Marissa Davis who has become a valuable asset, and to the countless parents who helped us out including:  Steve Rissman, John Thorsen, Hall Whitworth, Larry Stewart, Heather Delaporte, and Jim Berk.  To Ania, Sarah, and their friend Patrick who came down from Tallahassee to judge.  An incredible amount of hard work put in by the debaters and these folks to make the largest tournament of the year for LHP a very successful one.

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4) Colonial CFL (October 23rd, 2004):  Lake Highland's Young and Talented performed marvelously once again at the 2nd League CFL Qualifier at Colonial High School.  Here be da highlights of yet another articulatin' Highlander performance:

*In Policy Debate:  The Fab Four continued their unbelievable beginning.  This time, the team of Brendan Green and Katie Morehead WON the VARSITY POLICY championship, posting a perfect 4-0 record.  
*In Varsity Lincoln-Douglas, JR Thorsen learned from the previous competition enough to earn a 3rd Place trophy and a 3-1 record.
*In JV Lincoln-Douglas, Steven Campisi improved upon last tournament's 2nd place finish by becoming CHAMPION of the event.  Steven has won awards at three of the four tournaments he has attended so far in his young and promising career.
*In Extemp, the captains FINALLY came out to play.  Arlie Hudson and Jordan Rubin tied for 1st Place in Extemp.  This is the 2nd consecutive championship in Extemp for a team that was supposed to be in a re-building year, having lost two nationally-ranked Extempers.  The future is bright.  All underclassmen in what will be a really impressive squad.
*In Student Congress, young wonderchild, Varun Hippalgoanker, coming off of his win in Extemp last tournament, finished 3rd overall in his third different event of the young season.
*Rowena Gasmen, in an adapted DI, finished in the money yet again, with a 2nd place trophy in Dramatic Performance.  Gasmen has been at least in the top 5 at 2 national tournaments with her DI and now a 2nd place finish amongst some top quality local competition.

The Squad prepares for Blue Key 11/04-11/07, the largest national tournament on our calendar outside of Harvard.   Hopefully, the early success will continue to translate.

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So far this year (in two national and two local tournaments, the LHP squad has been to Final Rounds or has posted 1st or 2nd place locally in the following events.  Diversity is pretty incredible.

Varsity Policy (1st Place - Colonial)
JV Policy (2nd Place - Celebration)
Varsity LD (Octafinals, Wake, 2nd Place Celebration, 3rd Place Colonial)
JV LD (10th Speaker, Yale; 1st Place - Colonial, 2nd Place - Celebration)
Extemp :  (1st place Celebration, 2 Tied for 1st Place Colonial)
OO: (2 Top 5's Wake Forest, Semis - Yale, 1st and 2nd Place - Celebration)
DP:  (2nd Place Wake Forest, 2nd Place Colonial)
Duo:  (Semifinals - Wake Forest)
OI: (2 Top 5's Yale)
Congress:  (1 National Title - Shami Wake Forest; 1 National Runner-up Shami Yale:  1 3rd Place Whitworth Yale;  1 6th place - Dever Wake Forest.  3rd Colonial (Hippalgoanker), 3rd Celebration (Johnson), Finalist Yale (Gruenberg)
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3) Celebration CFL   (October 9th, 2004):  Lake Highland's Newest Members put on quite a performance in the first League Qualifier at Celebration High School.  Trophies galore for many of our competitors in many of their first-ever competitions.  Da Highlights:

*The Team of Arianna Guzman and Brendan Green scored a perfect 4-0 record in Novice Policy Debate and earned a 2nd Place trophy
*In Novice Lincoln-Douglas, Steven Campisi finished with a 3-1 record while earning a 2nd Place trophy.  Freshman Hana Ahmed also posted a 3-1 record and finished 4th overall in the competition.
*In Varsity Lincoln-Douglas, Sophomore Sophie Grace in her first-ever Varsity competition finished with a perfect 4-0 record and earned a 2nd Place trophy
*In Student Congress, Kendall Johnson finished with a 3rd Place trophy
*In Extemporaneous, Varun WON the first of many extemp titles, a 1st place trophy in the event.
*The oratories swept the competition, taking both the 1st Place spot (Hilary Whitworth - Champion) and 2nd Place Spot (Megan Glass)
*The Public Forum Tandum of Jennifer Dever and Ashley Berk recorded a perfect 4-0 record en route to their first-ever Championship in the event.

Congratulations to a team of LHP competitors who were mostly freshman and sophomores competing against Varsity competiton from schools from Orlando, Jacksonville, Tampa, and Gainesville.   The future is certainly bright with this squad.

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2) Yale:  (October 1-3, 2004):   The LHP Speech and Debate team continued its torrid start at the Yale University Invitational, featuring the best competition in the Northeast and Nationally and featuring the largest pools for Lincoln-Douglas outside of Harvard.  Some impressive performances from the group of 22 students who competed.   Highlights:

*Tyler Shami coming off of his Wake Forest championship, was Tournament Runner-Up in his second outing.  Tyler's #1 Ranking in the U.S. is still secure after two really impressive National Tournaments.

*Tyler's Partner, Morgan Whitworth finished in 3rd place overall in a Student Congress that featured the top Congress programs in the nation.  Two of the Top Three in a national forum is the best performance that LHP has ever registered in Congress.

*Senior Chris Gruenberg broke out with his first-ever break to the Super Congress Session.

*Junior Rowena Gasmen finished in 6th place in Oral Interpretation.  Her second consecutive Final Round, while Senior Maygen Lafata finished in 5th Place in OI.  This is the 2nd time in as many tournaments that LHP has had two finalists in the same IE event.  Laura and Emily both finaled at Wake Forest.

*Junior Logan Altman advanced to the semifinals of Dramatic Interpretation

*Junior Samantha Favis advanced to the semifinals of Original Oratory.  Sam has been in outrounds of both national tournaments so far this year.

*The Lincoln-Douglas Squad posted 3 out of 4 breaks in Varsity LD.  All dropped in Triple-Octas (Top 64 out of 225), Brent Bielski was 7th Speaker, Mike Holzer and JR Thorsen

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1) Wake Forest (September 14-17, 2004):  The LHP Speech and Debate Team, coming off its most impressive season in history, and suffering from the graduation, re-location, emigration, and resignation of some seriously talented debaters, has nonetheless proven that this "re-building year" will not be as hard as previously expected.  In fact, the team seems poised for yet another season of exceptional state and national success.  The team traveled to the National Wake Forest Early-Bird Invitational, competing against teams from as far away as Massachusetts, Texas, and California, and showed once again, that it belongs among the top calibre programs in the Southeast.  Le Highlights:

*In Student Congress - Senior Tyler Shami, coming off a finals showing at Nationals in the Senate, Picked up his first-ever National Tournament championship.  Junior Jennifer Dever, advanced to the Super Congress round (ranked #1 out of her chamber) and finished the tournament in 6th place overall. 

*In Lincoln Douglas Debate, Senior Mike Holzer proved that his tournament of champions spot last year was no fluke, advancing out of the competitive field as the 6th seed overall.  He dropped in Octafinals on a 2-1 decision.

*Sophomore sensation Najeeb Khuda finished in the top 10 in JV Lincoln-Douglas, dropping on a 2-1 decision in the play-in round to Quarterfinals.

*LHP has its strongest Oratory team ever this year.  In a sign of things to come, Seniors Laura Stewart and Emily Vaughan advanced to the Final Round of this National Competition, placing 4th and 6th respectively.  Junior Samantha Favis advanced to Semifinals of OO, while Senior Eric Yarnell missed semifinals by one rank.

*In Public Forum Debate, the tandem of Morgan Whitworth and Madison Smith advanced to Quarterfinals of competiton (top 8). Varun Hippalgoanker (Freshman) and his partner Ashley Berk, finished with a respectable 3-3 record (13th place overall) in the competition.

*The Interp team duplicated last year's UPenn achievements with a perfect break record.  All Interpers brought to the competition advanced to the outrounds.
     *Rowena Gasmen, in the toughest competition in the nation in Dramatic Interpretation, finished in 3rd place overall.
     *Logan Altman advanced to semifinals in Dramatic Interp, while The FRESHMAN team of Sam Perrotta and Patrick Hurlburt advanced to Semifinals of Duo Interp.

*The TEAM finished the tournament in 2nd Place Overall. Out of a strong field of over 80 teams Nation-wide, LHP was the Runner-Up in Team Sweepstakes. We were Runner-Up last year as well.  Some day, we're gonna whip them boys and girls from Chattahoochee.  Congratulations to all who competed.   Special Thanks to Andy, Gail, and Shawn Carroll, as well as a host of former high-LANDers who helped out with judging and coaching.

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2003-2004 Archives

NFL National Championships:   (June 12-19, 2004:  Salt Lake City, Utah):  The team qualified a record 7 competitors to the NFL National Championships in Salt Lake City.  The team comprisedof:

Morgan Whitworth (Congressional House)
Tyler Shami (Congressional Senate)
Aubrey Trask and Chris Yen (Policy Debate)
Harriet Levett (Lincoln-Douglas Debate)
Varun Akula (Domestic Extemp)
Ania Amador (Domestic Extemp and Impromptu). 

A mere qualification to Nationals is a real chore, considering that only 6 competitors in the state of Florida and only 12 in Student Congress in Florida earn the right to compete.  But, of course, our little youngsters rarely "just qualify".  Some of the most impressive performances at National Championship competition was the result.  The highlights:

*Senior Ania Amador, in an Impromptu competition that featured over 900 entries nationally made it all of the way to FINALS of competition and finished in 6th place nationally in the event.
*Senior Varun Akula, who has been in the top 10 nationally in Extemp all season long finished respectably as a Quarterfinalist in Domestic Extemp (Top 25).  Varun is the sole recipient in school history of the "prestigious Rovere Bowl", awarded to those who completed 10 rounds of competition.
*Junior Tyler Shami finished in the Finals of the Congressional Senate (top 24 in the nation), was awarded the Stennis Medal for his participation in Finals, and was awarded a top Presiding Officer award for Preliminary Competition.
*Junior Morgan Whitworth, advanced to Semifinals of the Congressional House and was one point from Finals (top 30 in the Nation).  He was elected to pariticipate in an International Congress Round featuring students from the U.S. along with Zimbabwe, South Africa, Moldova, Russia, Argentina, and China and was awarded a "PresitigiousJefferson Cup" (Alleged to hold up to 50 M&M's) for His Participation.  He was also awarded a Mundt Medal for Semifinals in Congress, and was awarded as one of the top Presiding Officers in Preliminary Competition.

Harriet Levett finished with a 7-5 preliminary record, missing break rounds by one ballot.

Chris Yen and Aubrey Trask finished with a 6-6 ballot count in Policy Debate. 

*The Year is complete.   Thanks for support and those who contributed to the most successful debate season in team history and one of the landmark performances by any team in the State of Florida this year.  We look forward to continued success. 

CFL National Championships (May 27-29, 2004):  LHP Traveled 16 underclassmen to the CFL Nationals in Boston, MA over the weekend.  The tournament featured over 2500 competitors from over 300 schools all over the country.  Some of the highlights:

*Sophomore Harriet Levett brought a 12-3 preliminary ballot record into break-rounds and advanced to Octafinals of the competition.  (Top 16 in National Championships).  Harriet is the only LDer in team history to advance to break-rounds of a National Championship.

*Junior Morgan Whitworth advanced to the Super Congress Session (Finals).  Morgan finished in the top 10 in the Nation at the event and was awarded top Presiding Officer in one of the preliminary chambers.

National Tournament of Champions (May 1-3, 2004):   The Most Prestigious Debate Tournament in the Land.  The Debaters Real National Championship.  Based on Tournament Success, the top 72 Debaters in the United States Qualified for TOCs in Lincoln-Douglas.  Lake Highland Had Three of Them.  Seniors Ryan O'Hara and Josh Marshall and Junior Mike Holzer were 3 of only 5 LDers from the State of Florida that qualified for the National Tournament of Champions.  Also, 9 teams from around the country participated in the first-ever Public Forum Tournament of Champions.    The LHP team of Morgan Whitworth and Taylor Wray were selected.  Some of the Highlights:

*Senior Ryan O'Hara became the first-ever Lake Highland Competitor to advance to the break-rounds of TOCs.  Ryan advanced to Octafinals (Sweet 16), before bowing out on a 2-1 decision to the eventual champion.  Ryan finishes his career ranked among the top 10 debaters in the U.S.
*Senior Josh Marshall capped a remarkable Senior year with 5 TOC bids, 2 National Tournament Championships, 2 National Tournament Runner-Ups and a respectable 3-4 record (top 40) at the TOCs.
*Junior Mike Holzer, while roughing it a bit amongst the unbelievably experienced and talented field (only 2 underclassmen made it to break rounds, only 8 even had winning records) at this year's TOCs, is poised for good things his senior year.  He was the lone underclassmen from the state of Florida to participate at the TOCs.

*In Public Forum Debate, besides the recognition of being among only 9 teams in the U.S. selected to participate in the TOC round-robin, Morgan and Taylor finished in 4th place overall with a 5-4 record and Taylor Wray was awarded the 2nd Speaker in the tournament.

*A special Shot out to these remarkable seniors.  This was Taylor, Ryan, and Josh's last-ever tournament at LHP.  Ryan and Josh were likely Florida's TOP 2 Debaters (Of course Lauren Rosenberg and John Detzel would disagree, but I'm writing this and I'm incredibly biased but certainly their records would validate this claim).  Taylor has won awards all over the country in 3 different events and has racked up more NFL points than anyone in school history.  But  besides all of the accolades (scroll down on this section and that will be obvious), I had a lot of fun with these guys, learned a ton from them, and will certainly miss the hell out of them.  They have made the ridiculous amount of work that this activity involves more than worth it.  This school may never see a more talented and gifted core of intellectuals than these three.  

Novice State Championships (April 23-24, 2004):  The Lake Highland Speech and Debate proved this past weekend that the future of the squad is brighter than ever.   LDers and IEers dominated the state-wide field with one impressive performance after another at the Novice State Championships held in Jacksonville.  Among the Highlights:

*Rowena Gasmen and Logan Altman finished as STATE CHAMPION and STATE RUNNER-UP respectively in Oral Interpretation.  The OI field was the largest IE event at the tournament.
*Samantha Favis was declared STATE CHAMPION in Original Oratory, while Freshman Hilary Whitworth finished in 4th place in the state overall.
*Both EXTEMPERS, Arlie Hudson (DX) and Jordan Rubin (FX) advanced to Finals.  Both finished the tournament in 5th place in the state.
*David Rissman finished in 3rd place in the State overall in Dramatic Interpretation.
*Rachel Pohl, in only her second tournament ever, finished in 4th in the State in Declamation.
*And both of our Lincoln-Douglas Freshman advanced to break-rounds.  J.R. Thorsen was coached over Najeeb Khuda in Octafinals, and eventually dropped in Quarters.  J.R. was also 4th speaker overall in the tournament.

Over the last three years in State Championship competition, Lake Highland has produced:

*8 State Champions (2 Varsity and 6 Novice)
*9 State Runner-UPs
*Every Extemper in the Last 3 years has participated in the Final Round of Novice Competition
*All but One LDer in 3 years of Novice competition has advanced to Break-rounds.

CFL Grand Finals (March 12-13): In spite of the non-participation of our senior competitors (due to a conflict with Graduation), LHP Speech and Debate brought 25 competitors to the CFL Grand Finals at Winter Springs High School.  6 Competitors qualify in each event from the CFL District (Gainesville, Jacksonville, Orlando) to compete for a CFL National Championship in Boston Memorial Day Weekend.  Of the 25 kids we brought, 15 of them are going to nationals.  Here is the List of Qualifiers.  Congratulations to each of them.
*Morgan Whitworth (Jr.) - Student Congress
*Aubrey Trask (Fr.) and Sophie Grace (Fr.) - Team Debate
*Harriet Levett (So.) - Lincoln-Douglas
*Hilary Whitworth (Fr.) - Declamation
*Ashley Berk (So.) - Declamation
*Jennifer Dever (So.) - Declamation
*Laura Stewart (Jr.) - Original Oratory
*Samantha Favis (So.) - Original Oratory
*Rowena Gasmen (So.) - Oral Interpretation
*Lora Johns (Jr.) - Oral Interpretation
*Jordan Rubin (Fr.) - Extemporaneous Speaking
*Harrison Gordon (So.) - Dramatic Performance
*David Rissman (So.) and Maygen Lafata (Jr.) - Duo Interp.

Congratulations to all qualifiers.  A shot out to Michael Holzer and Keegan Berry (1st Alternates in LD and Extemp respectively). 

Florida State Championships (March 5-6, 2004):
Lake Highland again qualified an impressive number of competitors for this past weekend's Florida State Championships.  25 HighLANDers filled out the field that included the top 36 competitors in the State of Florida (minus obvious exclusions) to compete for titles in 11 separate Forensics events.  The team continued its torrid success at the championships with a host of strong performances.  Some of the Notables:

*Senior Ania Amador matched Lora Johns's last year's performance by making it to the final round in two separate events.  Ania was named STATE RUNNER-UP in Domestic Extemp and 5th Place in Original Oratory.
*The Public Forum Debate Team of Morgan Whitworth and Taylor Wray went to the Finals yet again and were declared STATE RUNNER-UP.  They lost the final round on a 3-2 decision.
*Sophomore Harrison Gordon scored straight first-place ballots in all five of his preliminary rounds and finished as STATE RUNNER-UP in Humorous Interpretation
*Junior Maygen Lafata advanced to the final round in Oral Interpretation and finished 5th in the state in the event.
*FRESHMAN JR THORSEN shocked the field yet again by advancing to the SEMIFINALS (top 4 in the STATE) in Lincoln-Douglas debate.
*Junior Lora Johns advanced to Semifinals in Oral Interpretation.

THE FINAL TALLY:  LHP COMPETITORS FINISHED IN THE TOP 5 IN 6 OF THE 11 EVENTS AT STATES.  QUITE IMPRESSIVE, REALLY AND FINISHED 2ND TO NOVA HIGH SCHOOL FOR THE MOST COMPETITORS TO ADVANCE TO BREAK-ROUNDS IN THE STATE CHAMPIONSHIPS.   2ND WAS THE THEME OF THE WEEKEND.  NO STATE CHAMPIONSHIPS THIS YEAR, BUT 3 STATE RUNNER-UPS.  WELL-DONE SQUAD.   LHP COMPETES THIS WEEKEND AT THE CFL NATIONAL QUALIFIER, WHERE 25 OF OUR FRESHMAN, SOPHOMORES, AND JUNIORS WILL TRY TO MAKE IT TO THE BIG DANCE IN BOSTON (*ALL OF OUR SENIORS ARE INELIGIBLE SINCE CFL NATIONALS CONFLICTS WITH GRADUATION).  WE WILL HOPE FOR THE BEST ANYWAY.

Chesapeake Bay Round-Robin and Invitational (February 19-22, 2004): 
The Nationally-Ranked Tandum of Ryan O'Hara and Josh Marshall competed in both the Chesapeake Bay Round-Robin and Invitational in Baltimore, Maryland among a select list of TOC qualified opponents.

*In the Round-Robin, Ryan O'Hara finished 2nd in his group, while Josh Marshall finished 3rd in his.
*In the Invitational, Josh Marshall was declared co-Champion while Ryan advanced to quarterfinals before bowing out to co-Champion Will Palmer from S.F. Austin in Texas.
*A great performance by both in some of the most select competition in the country.

Harvard Invitational (February 14-16, 2004):  Lake Highland Speech and Debate traveled 22 students to the Harvard Invititional, the largest national tournament in the country, featuring over 3,000 competitors from over 400 schools from all over the land.  Some notable achievements were registered by some of our folks:

4 of our 6 Student Congress competitors broke in the most prestigious Congress tournament in the country.
*Senior Marissa Styne broke to the Semi-Super Congress Round
*Sophomore Jennifer Dever broke to the Semi-Super Congress Round
*Junior Tyler Shami broke to the final Super Congres (top 25 out of over 430 competitors)
*Junior Morgan Whitworth broke to the final Super Congress (top 25 out of over 430 competitors)

*Juniors Emily Vaughn and Laura Stewart were the only two of our IEers to break at Harvard this year, advancing to the Octafinal Round of competition (top 48) in Original Oratory (out of over 300 competitors)

*Senior Ryan O'Hara was the lone LD break, advancing to the Double-Octafinals round (32) out of 340 Varsity LD competitors.  This is Ryan's 5th partial-TOC bid to accompany 3 full-TOC bids this season.

FFL Qualifiers @ Lake Brantley High School:  January 31st, 2004

The Following Articulatin' High-landers will be representing us at the Florida State Championships to be held on March 5th and 6th.

Chris Yen and Canon Mead (Policy Debate)
Morgan Whitworth and Taylor Wray (Public Forum Debate)
Ashley Berk and Jennifer Dever (Public Forum Debate)
Mike Holzer (LD)
Harriet Levett (LD)
J.R. Thorson (LD)
Tyler Shami (Student Congress)
Carl Chotas (FX)
Keegan Berry (FX)
Jordan Rubin (FX)
Aubrey Trask (FX)
Ania Amador (DX)
Arlie Hudson (DX)
Ania Amador (OO)
Laura Stewart (OO)
Eric Yarnell (OO)
Lora Johns (OI)
Maygen Lafata (OI)
David Rissman (DI)
Harrison Gordon (HI)
Lora Johns (HI)
Maygen Lafata and David Rissman (Duo)
Harrison Gordon and Wesley Conner (Duo)

Congratulations to all qualifiers.  A special thanks to Captains Varun Akula (too musical) and Josh Marshall (not good enough) for their sense of humor in this their final season of debate.

The Barkley Forum @ Emory University (Atlanta, GA):  January 23-26, 2004:

*The Barkley Forum @ Emory is the most prestigious National Tournament in the Country.  Featuring over 240 schools, students must fill out an application to even be accepted in the field.  The tournament features the top 160 teams or competitors in the Debate Events and 100 top competitors in each of the IE and Student Congress Events.  Every Competitive Team in Speech and Debate throughout the country was in attendance.  Lake Highland Traveled 9 competitors to this presitigious tournament and came away with its best showing ever.

The Highlights:

Senior Varun Akula completed the most impressive tournament in team history (excepting Josh Swartsel's national championship of course) by WINNING the EXTEMPORANEOUS SPEAKING CHAMPIONSHIP.  This is Varun's 2nd Consecutive Championship in Extemp and his third this year.

Senior Ryan O'Hara advanced to the double-octafinals round of competition against the best field of Lincoln-Douglas competitors this season

Senior Josh Marshall was a non-clearing 4-2, missing break-rounds by one speaker point.

Senior Taylor Wray advanced to the Super Congress Finals and finished the tournament as the #8 legislator in an elite field.

Junior Laura Stewart advanced to Semifinals in Original Oratory.  This is the best finish ever for an OO at Emory and will force her coach to fashion a pink wig as the result of a bet the two waged prior to the tournament.

Senior Ania Amador advanced to quarterfinals in both OO and Extemp.  She is the first competitor in our school's history to double-break at Emory

Sophomore Rowena Gasmen was the pleasant surprise of the tournament.  She advanced to semifinals in Oral Interpretation in her first-ever Emory.  An unbelievable feat for a sophomore.   Most likely one of the few sophomores in the country to finish so high in any of the events offered at the tournament.

Out of 9 competitors, we advanced 6 of them to the break-rounds at the most competitive tournament in the country.  An outstanding performance by one of the nation's elite teams.   The squad will be competing at the State Qualifiers this weekend.  We qualified a record 23 competititors last year.  We'll have to wait and see what this year's team comes up with.

The Crestian Classic:  Fort Lauderdale, FL - January 16-18, 2004:

*One of the most remarkable performances in LHP Speech and Debate's recently storied history was recorded this past weekend at The Crestian Classic in Fort Lauderdale.  The Crestian is the most competitive national tournament offered in Florida with teams from all over the country, including mid-western powerhouses Eagan High School in Minnesota, the Glenbrooks in Illinois, and Iowa City West in Iowa.  Teams from as far as Oklahoma and Pennsylvania competed against the best in Florida.  Lake Highland turned in another banner performance.  Los Highlightitos:

Lincoln Douglas Debate:

*Easily the best performance in team history.  The Lincoln-Douglas team recorded 4 of the 16 Octafinals breaks, 4 of the top ten Speakers, 3 TOC bids, 3 of the 8 quarterfinalists, 2 of the four semifinalists, and a close-out with Trinity Prep in the final four.

*Senior Ryan O'Hara recorded his third consecutive perfect record in national competition, finishing preliminaries with a 6-0 record.  Ryan was the #3 speaker, the top seed in the tournament, but bowed out in Octafinals on a 2-1 decision.  Ryan has three TOC bids and is currently ranked #11 in the United States.

*Senior Josh Marshall closed out the Finals with John Detzel of Trinity.  He was the TOP SPEAKER in the tournament.  He earned his 5th TOC bid and is currently ranked #7 in the United States.

*Junior Mike Holzer finished preliminaries as the #7 Speaker, earned his 2nd TOC bid and closed out semifinals with Josh and Trinity Prep.  Mike, along with Josh and Ryan, is one of 48 competitors in the U.S. who has qualified for the National Tournament of Champions in Lexington, KY in May.

*Junior Madison Smith finished preliminaries as the #5 Speaker, #5 seed, and advanced to Quarterfinals.  He earned his first-ever TOC bid.

*Lake Highland's LD squad now boasts 11 TOC bids, 3 TOC qualified competitors, and will likely improve upon its #5 team ranking in the United States in the event.

In Other News:

The Policy Debate Team of Chris Yen and Aubrey Trask finished the tournament with a 4-2 record, but were a fraction of a point away from a quarterfinals break.  They finished in 9th place.

The Team of Morgan Whitworth and Taylor Wray confirmed their status as one of the region's best Public Forum Debate Squads.  The Tandum advanced to the Final Round of Competition, placing 2nd overall.  Whitworth and Wray have been in finals of both national tournaments that they have competed in together.

Senior Varun Akula, put his stamp once again on being one of the nation's best extempers.   Varun went 1,1,2 in the Finals and was declared CHAMPION of the event.  This is Varun's 2nd Tournament win.  He has been to finals in all but one tournament this year.

Senior Ania Amador went perfect 1's all the way through semifinals and was speaker points away from finishing 2nd to Varun in Extemporaneous Speaking.  She placed 3rd Overall in the Tournament.

Senior Carl Chotas recorded his first break at a national tournament, advancing to quarterfinals in Extemp.

Junior Tyler Shami finished 5th overall in Student Congress.

Senior Marissa Styne advanced to the final Round of Student Congress.

Junior Laura Stewart advanced to Semifinals of a highly competitive Original Oratory.  She placed 8th overall

Junior Maygen Lafata advanced to quarterfinals in Oral Interpretation.

The Sophomore Team of Harrison Gordon and Wesley Conner advanced to Semifinals in Duo Interpretation.

*This is one of the strongest performances against an elite field of competition for our team.   Please congratulate them on their continued excellence at the highest levels.  17 Breaks out of 25 competitors that we brought to the tournament.  Amazing!

The BUMP Invitational at Hendrick Hudson High School (New York:  December 12-13, 2003):

NFL Qualifiers (December 5-6, 2003):  The LHP Speech and Debate Team participated in the National Tournament Qualifiers.  Only 2 Contestants in IE and Debate from our District and only 6 from the State of Florida Qualify in Each Event.  LHP had a strong showing, qualifying 7 competitors and several others as Alternates in the highly competitive qualifier.

Among the Qualifiers:

In Student Congress, LHP had a very strong showing.
*Morgan Whitworth was one of the two qualifiers to the National House of Representatives.   *Senior Varun Akula was voted 2nd alternate out of this House.
*Tyler Shami was one of the two qualifiers to the National Senate.
*Ryan O'Hara was voted 1st Alternate in the 2nd Chamber and was voted Best Presiding Officer.

In Domestic Extemp, LHP secured both of the spots to Nationals, duplicating last year's feat.  Varun Akula Qualified in the #1 Spot.  Ania Amador Qualified in the #2 spot.

In Foreign Extemp, Carl Chotas was elected 1st Alternate and Sophomore Keegan Berry was elected 2nd Alternate

In Original Oratory, Eric Yarnell finished at the 1st Alternate in the strongest showing of his career.

In Lincoln-Douglas, Sophomore Harriet Levett shocked the competitive field by qualifying to nationals in her first competitive Varsity Tournament.  Her Mentor Josh Marshall, in a weird juxtaposition, finished 4th overall in the  tournament (2nd Alternate to Nationals).

And Finally, in Policy Debate, the team of Chris Yen and Freshman Aubrey Trask, in their first tournament together, secured One of the Two spots to Nationals.

Congratulations to all qualifiers and Alternates and to the team as a whole who had will take its largest contingent ever to Nationals in Salt Lake City in June.

The Glenbrooks (November 21-24, 2003):  Glenbrooks in Chicago is the largest high school-sponsored tournament in the country and considered one of the most competitive in the country.   Over 300 schools and 2000 competitors from every top speech and debate program was in attendance.  Lake Highland's squad held its own among the nation's best, as has been the case lately.

Notable Performances:

Senior Ryan O'Hara finished preliminaries with a perfect 7-0 record against the best competition in the country and was ranked as the 2nd speaker in a field of over 220 competitors.  He advanced to Octafinals and earned his 2nd TOC Bid.  He will be joining Josh Marshall in Lexington, KY in May at the Tournament of Champions which features the top 70 Lincoln-Douglas Debaters in the country.  Lake Highland currently boasts the #5 LD Program in the Nation and two of the top 20 LD Debaters in the nation (Marshall and O'Hara). 

In Student Congress, Junior Morgan Whitworth finished in 4th place overall in the tournament.  LHP placed 3 competitors in the Final Round (Super Congress) out of over 200 Legislators.  Tyler Shami was elected Presiding Officer of the Finals, and Jennifer Dever was one of the few sophomores in the nation who advanced to finals.

Senior Varun Akula advanced to Semifinals in the highly competitive Extemporaneous Speaking Field (top 12). Varun's success this year earned him a place in the presitigious Montgomery Bell Round Robin in January.  Only 12 extempers in the nation were extended invitations.

In Interp news, Junior Lora Johns advanced to finals at her second consecutive national tournament.  Lora placed 5th in OI in an elite field featuring the best interpers in the country.  Sophomore Harrison Gordon advanded to semifinals in Humorous Interpretation.  Harrison has been to semifinals at the two most difficult interp tournaments of the fall semester. 

*Special thanks to T. Bessire, Hal Whitworth, and all those who helped out with the trip up to Chicago.  The team competes this weekend at the NFL National Qualifier.  Those who qualify will compete at Nationals in Salt Lake City in June.  Best of luck to the little homies and homettes who comprise the team of articulatin' Highlanders.   Producing Reflected Glory at a Fever pitch in 2003-04.

Florida Blue Key (October 30-November 2nd, 2003):  The LHP Speech and Debate team competed in the largest tournament in the southeastern U.S.  The Florida Blue Key in Gainesville, FL.  140 speech and debate programs from around the state and the country competed.  Over 1000 competitors participated.  Lake Highland duplicated last year's amazing accomplishment by placing 2ND OVERALL in TEAM SWEEPSTAKES, finishing behind only Nova High School in the competition.

Highlights:

Lake Highland had 6 competitors in the Thursday Round-Robin:
1. Ryan O'Hara placed second in the competition and was awarded 1st Speaker Honors in Lincoln-Douglas
2. Josh Marshall placed 4th in Lincoln-Douglas
3. Varun Akula WON the Round-Robin, receiving 1's from all 8 judges in the competition (Mixed Extemporaneous)
4. Ania Amador finished in 3rd place in Mixed Extemporaneous
5. Morgan Whitworth finished 5th in the Legislative Invitational
6. Tyler Shami competed in the Legislative Invitational

ON to the Tournament at Large:

Lincoln-Douglas Debaters dominated the Competition.  Breaking 5 of our 6 competitors to at least Octafinals and placing competitors in the final rounds of both Varsity and JV.
*Senior Josh Marshall earned his 3rd TOC bid and finished in 2nd Place in Varsity Lincoln-Douglas.  He was also 3rd Speaker in the competition
*Junior Mike Holzer advanced to quarterfinals and earned his-first ever TOC bid
*Sophomore Harriet Levett, in only her fourth competitive tournament, advanced to the final round of JV LD.  She placed 2nd overall in the competition.
*Junior Madison Smith advanced to Semifinals in JV Lincoln-Douglas.  Mado has been to break-rounds in all but one of the tournaments that he has competed in his debate career
*Junior Brent Bielski advanced to Octafinals in JV Lincoln-Douglas.
*A special shot out to Senior Ryan O'Hara for maintaining his sense of humor throughout the weekend.

Student Congress Represents itself in the 2nd largest and 2nd most competitive tournament in the country.  Out of over 250 competitors, 6 of our 7 Student Congress entries advanced to break-rounds.
*Junior Morgan Whitworth advanced to the Super Congress Round of Competition and was voted Presiding Officer of Finals
*Junior Tyler Shami advanced to the Super Congress Round (top 24 competitors)
*Senior Taylor Wray advanced to Semi-Super Congress (top 72) and was awarded a BEST PRESIDING OFFICER award in preliminaries
*Junior Chris Gruenberg advanced to Semi-Super Congress
*Sophomore Jennifer Dever advanced to Semi-Super Congress and was on the nomination board for Finals
*Sophomore Ashley Berk advanced to Semi-Super Congress

Individual Peformances Galore for the IEers
*Senior Varun Akula finished 3rd Overall in Domestic Extemp and advanced to Semifinals in Foreign Extemp
*Senior Ania Amador finished 6th overall in Original Oratory and Semifinals in Domestic Extemp
*Junior Lora Johns finished 2nd overall in Oral Interpretation and she and her Duo partner Chris Salinas advanced to Quarterfinals in Duo
*Junior Maygen Lafata advanced to Semifinals in Oral Interp and she and her partner Logan Altman advanced to quarterfinals in Duo Interp
*Sophomore Rowena Gasmen advanded to quarterfinals in Oral Interp

*Special Thanks for to the number of parents who helped us out this weekend.  This was a long and grueling tournament, but this national elite program shined once again.  Congratulate the team members when you see them.  They represent us well all over the United States.  We thank you all for your continued support.

George, Andy, Gail, Alex, Terri, Tracy, and that fun-loving bunch of articulating and intellectualizing Highlanders.

University of Pennsylvania Liberty Bell Classic (October 3-5, 2003)
The LHP Speech and Debate team traveled a limited team of 13 to the highly competitive Liberty Bell Classic @ the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.  The best teams from the Northeast, Middle Atlantic and Southeast Regions competed.  The Highlights:

The Entire Lake Highland Interp Team advanced to Break-Rounds.  All Two of Them. 

Junior Maygen Lafata has become one of the team's stars as of late.  She advanced all the way to the final round in Oral Interpretation and finished the tournament in 2nd Place overall.

Sophomore Harrison Gordon advanced to Semifinals (top 12) in a combined field of Dramatic and Humorous Interpretation.

Seniors Ania Amador and Varun Akula dominated an extremely competitive Extemporaneous Speaking pool.  Ania advanced to Semifinals and was seeded 2nd out of preliminaries.  Varun continued his hot streak with a 4th place finish overall.

Extemp could've been even sweeter.   Sophomore Keegan Berry and Carl Chotas finished 12th and 13th respectively overall.   The break to semifinals was 11th.  A good performance for all of the extempers.

Junior Tyler Shami advanced to the Super Congress, Top 18 of Student Congress Competitors.

Finally, the team of Taylor Wray and Morgan Whitworth carried a 5-1 preliminary record into finals before bowing out to the champions of Ocean N.J. in Ted Turner Debate.  Taylor and Morgan have an overall record of 11-2 in the event.

Finally, despite having such a small team, the quality of our competitor's performances earned LHP a 5th Place finish Overall in the Team Competition.  This is the team's 2nd Top 5 finish at a National Tournament so far this year.  (*We've only been to 3 tournaments).

Yale Invitational (September 19-21, 2003)
Lake Highland brought some of its younger team members to the Yale University Invitational in New Haven this past weekend.  As usual, we had a good amount of success.  Among those who stood out.

Sophomore Jennifer Dever advanced to the Super Congress (Final Round) in one of the more Competitive Student Congresses on the circuit.   This is Jennifer's first foray into the Super Session on the National Level where she competed against Congress Powerhouse Schools Nova and Christian Brothers Academy.
Sophomore Harrison Gordon finished the preliminaries as the 3rd Seed in the tournament and advanced to Semifinals of competition in Humorous Interp.  This is Harrison's first Semifinals at the nationl level.
Junior Maygen Lafata advanced to the semifinals of Oral Interpretation.  This is Maygen's first Semifinal Round and first break in National Competition.
Senior Ania Amador broke to Semifinals in Extemporaneous Speaking in a highly competitive field.  Ania is among the top extempers in Florida and proved that her Wake Forest performance was merely a blip on the radar.
Finally, Senior Taylor Wray in his first LD tournament of the season advanced to triple-octafinals in the field before bowing out to the eventual tournament champion.  The field featured 200 Varsity debaters.
Senior Colte Suggs, in his first LD tournament since last February, finished with a 3-2 record and missed break-rounds by 4 speaker points.

Overall, a solid performance which illustrates the depth of this team, a team that finished in 2nd Place overall in a field of over 150 teams at the Wake Forest Tournament.  The team will try its luck at the University of Pennsylvania, regarded as one of the most competitive tournaments in the Eastern United States on October 2nd. A special shot out to Trinity's John Detzel who earned a TOC-bid and finished as runner-up in Lincoln-Douglas.

Greenhill Invitational (Dallas, TX):   September 19-22, 2003
Lake Highland traveled its top two debaters to the ultra-competitive Greenhill Invitational.  Greenhill is an LD and Policy tournament that fields perhaps the best competition in the nation in each of these events.  As expected, Josh and Ryan performed remarkably against the nation's best.

Josh Marshall, coming off of his championship at Wake Forest, finished with a 5-1 record and advanced to the Octafinals of competition.   Josh Earned his 2nd TOC in as many weeks and is among 14 competitors in the country to have already qualified for the National Tournament of Champions in Lexington, KY in May.  Josh has opened a lot of eyes on the national circuit with his performance thus far and can place his name among the top competitors in the United States.

Ryan O'Hara, who advanced to Octafinals at Wake Forest last weekend, missed break rounds by ONE speaker point and finished with a 4-2 record for the tournament.  Ryan was one of a handful of Juniors last year to have earned a place in the National Tournament of Champions and despite some early setbacks is still regarded as one of the top competitors in the United States in Lincoln-Douglas debate.

LD has had some excellent individual performances thus far and has proved to be one of the toughest LD squads in the nation.   We hope and pray that it continues.

Wake Forest (September 11-14, 2003): The Lake Highland Speech and Debate Team continued with last season's success by posting its best performance ever with a 2nd Place finish overall in Team Sweepstakes. Of the 150 teams from all over the country, Lake Highland finished in second behind Chattahoochee in overall Team Performance.   The team had standout performances galore in this first National Tournament of the debate Season.  Some of the Highlights:

Josh Marshall led a host of Lincoln-Douglas Competitors at Wake Forest by becoming our First-ever National Tournament Champion outside of the state of Florida.  Marshall posted a 10-1 record overall in the tournament and earned his first TOC bid of the season.

Junior Brent Bielski advanced all the way to the final round of competition in JV Lincoln-Douglas before bowing out on a 2-1 decision.   Bielski finished the tournament with an impressive 8-2 record.

Ryan O'Hara advanced to Octafinals of the competitive Varsity Lincoln-Douglas field before bowing out on a 2-1 decision.  Ryan earns yet another partial-TOC bid.  He led the nation in partials last year (at least I'm pretty sure)

Junior Madison Smith advanced to the Octafinals of JV Lincoln-Douglas and came out of the preliminary rounds of competition as the TOP SPEAKER in the tournament.

In Student Congress, the Legacy of Josh Swartsel continues.  Coming off of Josh's National Championship, his benefactors took 3 of the top 7 places in the tournament.  Junior Morgan Whitworth finished in 3rd place overall and was Presiding Officer of the Super Congress Round.  Senior Marissa Styne, in her best tournament performance ever, finished in 6th place overall, while Novice State Champion Tyler Shami finished in 7th place.  Out of over 100 competitors, Lake Highland had 3 of the top 7 in the tournament.

National Semifinalist Varun Akula continued with his dominance of Extemporaneous Speaking by WINNING THE CHAMPIONSHIP in the event.   He also finished in 3rd Place in Impromptu.  Varun is among the top EXTEMPERS in the nation this year and this performance more than validates his successes from last year.

IN OTHER NEWS:

Sophomore Keegan Berry, in his first-ever national tournament, advanced to Semifinals in Extemporaneous Speaking

Junior Laura Stewart advanced to Semifinals in Original Oratory

Junior Emily Vaughn advanced to Quarterfinals in Original Oratory

Junior Lora Johns advanced to Semifinals in a highly-competitive Dramatic Interpretation field

Sophomore Harrison Gordon advanced to Quarterfinals in Humorous Interpretation.  This is Harrison's first-ever break in National Competition

An overall excellent performance for the Team.  Josh and Ryan O'Hara travel to the C