SCJFL 1st Quarter Debate Tournament 2023

SCJFL Debate finally returned to in-person after a whopping three years and eight months, due to the pandemic-related in-person hiatus. Not only was this the first tournament ever for some students, even for many returning students, this was their first in person tournament of their careers. Kudos kids did not let this faze them, and took the campus of East Los Angeles College by storm. Across Congress, Lincoln Douglas, and Public Forum, Kudos made their presence known and walked away victorious.

Starting in congress, Kudos absolutely dominated. Kudos had all 11 congressional debate finalists, and 14 of the top 15 students. Shout outs to 3rd year students Zoey Luc, Sanju Chanumalla and Annie Zhao for all placing top six overall in their final SCJFL opener ever. Those three, in combination with second years Hayley Fung + John Dong, in addition to first year Carrie Rao, took all 12 of the possible first place ranks that were offered between the three prelims and the final round. It was thus no shock that Zoey (five) and Hayley (three) took 1st and 2nd overall after they alone earned 75 % of the available 1st place ranks. Carrie and fellow first-years Jessica Wang, Ella Fan, and Justin Huo, closed out the final round in addition to Betty Chen, who rejoins congress after a successful year competing on the speech team and Samantha Zheng in her first congress tournament after competing in PF last year.

On the Lincoln Douglas side, Mazel Tov goes to 8th grader Yuna Wu who made the semifinal round. Shoutouts also go to fellow 8th grader Harry Chen for taking wins against two students from other programs, which knocked them out of the top four seeds and allowed Yuna to break ahead of them. These two LD returners also were on the PF team as 6th graders, so Kudos was very happy to see their teamwork panning out. Harry himself only lost to Yuna, and the eventual champion, but won a speaker’s award for his stellar performance. Congrats go to Yuna as well as first year’s Rebecca Ho and Grace Yang for all winning speaker awards!

Finally in Public Forum, congratulations to Frances Xiao and Matthew Li who took 3rd overall, and head to head only lost to the top two teams. They were also the third seed heading out of prelims, solidifying their placement as a top three team in the tournament. Praise is due for Claire Xuan as well as Frances, and fellow first years, Jayden Huang, and Derek Hu, for all winning speaker awards.

Overall, Kudos won sweepstakes at this tournament with 38 points (2.5 as many as any other school) and won only four less sweepstakes points than all of the other programs COMBINED. Way to go Kudos!

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