Last weekend, Windward Debate students added to their impressive season wins with a strong showing in the State Qualifier! Junior Meiyi Wang won the overall tournament with her stirring interpretation of Michelle Zauner's Crying in H-Mart, a memoir about intergenerational conflict, Korean heritage, and the cultural touch-stone of the Korean supermarket chain "H-Mart." “Meiyi has really perfected this speech over the course of the year,” said Debate Teacher Will Vincent. “It was wonderful to see her rewarded for it!”
Ben Elbaz ’24 also had a strong showing, placing first in the short-prep speech category known as National Extemporaneous Speaking. Ben wrote and performed four different topics over the course of the day about complex matters of domestic policy. Even more impressive, this was only Ben’s second tournament competing in Speech!
In International Extemporaneous Speaking, Luke Gialanella ’23 took an excellent second place, tackling complex issues regarding international politics and developed persuasive and nuanced speeches on these issues.
All three students will be moving on to the State tournament in April.
Additional qualifiers include Lawrence Paccione '22, who made it all the way to the final rounds in LD and went 5-2, taking 9th out of 44 competitors to be the fourth alternate for The State Championship. Jackson Walter '24 and Amanda Solomon '24 qualified for the State Championship in Parli Debate. Finally, Jet Jadeja '24 and Ben Mayer '24 also qualified for State and took 2nd place overall!
Congratulations on another excellent showing from our Windward debaters!
