SCJFL 1st Quarter Debate Tournament at East Los Angeles College (10/26)

Kudos had a powerful showing last Saturday (10/26) at East Los Angles College, First Quarter Debate Tournament held by SCJFL where nine middle schools participated.

The students showed remarkable determination to successfully complete a 14 and a half hour tournament and rank well doing it.

Nine of Kudos competitors were from the Irvine Public Forum Debate squad. Out of those nine, 4 students placed as part of the top 10 team, while 2 more received top 10 speaker awards.

Andy Chen and Claire Liu earned 4th place team honors with a 5-1 record and going undefeated in the elimination rounds. In their final round, they beat a reigning national champion in impromptu speaking. This was both Andy and Claire’s first tournament.

Sophia Dai and Melody Yu made it to the final round and earned 7th place team honors.
Sarah Chen and Annie Jiang’s performance earned them the 6th and 7th overall speaker awards.
Joy Sun and Seth Chang finished in the top half of the tournament as the 15th team overall.
Nancy Sun was not eligible for awards because she competed maverick (solo).

Public Forum squad from Temple City campus ride out with 2 teams (Kaitlyn & Suzie; Shirlyn & Madelyn) making it to outrounds with one team (Shirlyn & Madelyn) making it to finals in PF, with one student making it to finals in LD (Julieanne). Joleen Wong was the 8th overall speaking in PF, as well!

On the other hand, in Congress, Kudos students dominated last weekend, with every limited preparation student breaking in an event and most of the congress finalists, including the top Presiding Officer.

Many students were at their first tournament as members of the competition team and were very close to breaking.

14 of the 15 students in congress finals, including champion Bena Feng were from Kudos. First time congress competitors Tiffany Fu, Tim Cai, and Uma Shukla were all 1 point from finaling.

Special Shoutouts to Kerry Zhang who was the #1 seed in prelims, won best Presiding Officer, and took 10th in congress.