In the final competition of this semester at Savannah, the Park Hill South speech and debate team came away with some notable finishers on Dec. 17.
Jonah Hicks was one of the top performers on the weekend. He took first place in Lincoln Douglas Debate when he went 5-1, only losing one debate round which occurred in prelims.
Park Hill South sisters Sylvia and Sophia Nguyen went 3-1 to become quarterfinalists in Public Forum Debate last weekend at Savannah.
“Jonah is our outstanding novice from the fall semester,” Park Hill South speech and debate coach Hannah Townsend said. “He has earned 189 NSDA (National Speech and Debate Association) points earning the Degree of Excellence for NSDA.”
Benjamin Shepherd and Timmy Tasler went undefeated in their debates, walking away with a first-place trophy in Policy Debate. Tasler also impressed individually, walking away with a second-place finish in International Extemporaneous Speaking and a fourth-place finish in Original Oratory.
Leona Dalakishvili also came away with the top award in Original Oratory for the first time after breaking to the semifinals in all of her previous tournaments this semester. Jaelyn Woodley took fourth place in Student Congress in her first time competing in that event.
“Jaelyn is also a successful member of the band, so this was only her third time competing this season. That’s one of the amazing things about our program – our students can be involved in so many things because our program is flexible and can work around their schedule,” Townsend said.
Sylvia and Sophia Nguyen – who are sisters, and both have a 36 on their ACT – went 3-1 to become quarterfinalists in Public Forum Debate. Sylvia ended in fifth place individually in poetry.
“Last year, they qualified to the National Tournament and were very close to breaking to the top-60, so I’m looking forward to seeing what they accomplish this coming semester. Sylvia is normally a debater, but she decided to try out the acting side of our program and has found a lot of success,” Townsend said.
Moving on to next semester, it appears speech and debate for Park Hill South will be more competitive. It will have three National Individual Events’ Tournament of Champions qualifying tournaments in January, followed by conference, state-qualifier and national-qualifier tournaments.
After gaining experience throughout this semester, Park Hill South will look for improvement in the new calendar year. Townsend said that they’re going to be working hard over the break and next semester to get the students ready for that level of competition.