Kudos News for December 2012
December 2013
December was a very busy month.
First, our debaters attended the La Costa Canyon Invitational, where Victor Li achieved a Quarterfinalist award, and David Dosch accomplished Octafinalist, both in Lincoln-Douglas debate. David also earned the top speaker award in this event, and was the top seed going into out rounds.
Next was the 35th annual Los Angeles County Mock Trial Competition, held at the Los Angeles Superior Court.
The competition featured over 300 students and 30 school teams, and was adjudicated by actual Superior Court judges. We brought a smaller team than most schools, but that didn’t stop us.
Coach Scott Wheeler led the team to an impressive 3rd place finish, and five individual awards:
Jerry Wang - Outstanding Prosecution Attorney; Kirk Wu - Outstanding Prosecution Attorney; Jacqueline Shang - Outstanding Defense Witness; Jonathon Liu - Outstanding Prosecution Witness; and Caty Szeto - Outstanding Prosecution Witness.
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Later in the month, our elementary forensics competitors battled at the St. Rita’s Elementary Tournament, where we earned a total of 16 awards. In SPAR debate, Kudos students brought home 4 of the top 6 spots: Emily Zhang – 2nd place; Alvina Zhang – 3rd place; Anjee Feng – 4th place; and Miranda Chen – 6th place.
Both of our Duo Interp teams trophied as well, with Eric Mao and Alyssa Huang earning 3rd place, and Jaclyn Yip and Brandon Szeto getting 5th.
Jacob Chon, Allen Lin, and Evan Steinhoff all earned trophies in impromptu, winning 4th, 5th, and 6th place honors respectively.
Art Xue, Courtney Chan, and Nanette Zhang took 3rd, 5th, and 6th places in Poetry.
Lastly, Elaine Hong trophied in Storytelling, bringing home 6th place.
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The final tournament of December was the Harker Invitational, a middle school tournament held each year in San Jose that includes the best teams in the state.
Competition was fierce, but, as usual, Kudos was up to the challenge, in both speech and debate events. We earned 18 total awards, including winning the championship in 5 events, including Policy Debate, Public Forum Debate, Original Oratory, Prose, and Extemporaneous Speaking. It was, needless to say, a very impressive showing, and a clear statement to our opposition that Kudos is the team to beat.
A complete list of our Harker winners:
Jerry Wang – Prose – 1st place
Cicily Deng – Prose – 3rd place
Stanley Yu – Original Oratory – 1st place
Audrey Lam – Extemporaneous – 1st place
Joseph Kiang – Extemporaneous – 2nd place
Kirk Wu – Extemporaneous – 4th place
Melinda Wang – Impromptu – 4th place
Justin Chuang and Angela Chen – Public Forum Debate – 1st place
Natalie Wang and Gyuwon Kang – Policy Debate – 1st place
Jerry Wang and Kirk Wu – Policy Debate – Semifinalist
Joseph Kiang and Melinda Wang – Policy Debate – Semifinalist
Natalie Wang – Policy Debate – Top Speaker
Kirk Wu – Policy Debate – 3rd Speaker
Jerry Wang – Policy Debate – 4th Speaker
Joseph Kiang – Policy Debate – 7th Speaker
Audrey Lam – Lincoln-Douglas Debate – Quarterfinalist
Stanley Yu – Lincoln-Douglas Debate – Octafinalist
Audrey Lam – Lincoln-Douglas Debate – 10th Speaker