We had 17 students competing, mostly novices and students from the Debate I class entering competition for the first time. We came away with two first place finishes in Lincoln-Douglas Debate and Big Questions debate, as well as second through third in both events, effectively closing out the tournament.

 

Leading the way, we had three Lincoln-Douglas debaters go undefeated finishing the tournament with a combined 6-0 record. Winning first place, only dropping a single speaker point, was sophomore Ryan Yglesias. Closely behind him in 2nd place was freshman Dominic Alberty and in 3rd place was junior Charles Gannon. The undefeated trio was separated by merely 4 speaker points as they tackled the issue of national compulsory service. 

 

In the league's newest event, Big Questions Debate, two freshmen newcomers dominated the competition. The freshman duo of Michael Denis & Christopher de la Viesca were the only team to go undefeated in the tournament and finish with a 2-0 record for the first place finish. Not too far behind we had the junior team of Brian Milan & Luis Romero finish in 2nd place and in 3rd we had sophomore Fernando Mendoza. Andres Miranda also finished in 4th place to sweep the event. 

 

Competing in Public Forum Debate, we had four teams of students from the Debate I class discussing the benefits and costs of implementing a South Korean Missile Defense program. The teams representing Columbus consisted of Alec Faraldo & Michael Puig, John Reyes & Matthew Wolinsky, Robert Lopez & Javier Gandarillas, and seniors Chris Reyes & Charles Boyd. Being the biggest event at the tournament, the boys faced some stiff competition from North Miami High School, Belen, Braddock, and Miami Arts Charter. 

 

The team competes again this Saturday at the first Catholic Forensic League district tournament hosted by West Broward High School. This weekend we will have roughly 20 students competing across five events hoping to bring back some hardware.