In early March, Kudos split into two groups to compete at both a High School and a Middle School tournaments on the same weekend.  Mr. Freeman took a small group to JV/Novice National Championship at San Francisco State University.  Kirk Wu was the only freshman in semifinals among a group of sophomores and Audrey Lam finished right behind him in Quarterfinals.

Meanwhile in Southern California, the Middle School competitors attended the third Middle School league tournament of the year.  Michael Huang and Mei Johnson finished in 4^th place overall in Public Forum.  Other teams that advanced to elimination rounds in PF were Miranda Chang and Vincent Liu, Miranda Cheung and William Zhu.  In Lincoln-Douglas, Justin Jiang finished in 7^th place.  Also advancing to elimination rounds were Courtney Chan and Brian Chang.  In Policy Debate, the team of Michelle Xu and Jonathan Ge, both from Kudos Irvine campus, finished in 2^nd place.

At the third speech tournament, Kudos continued to add to the reservoir of trophies.  Catherine Szeto finished in first place in Original Oratory.  In Prose, Catherine Lee finished in third place, Victor Luo won fifth, and Karen Thai joined them in finals with a 12^th place finish.

Kudos prepared for Nationals by attending the Bruscke Invitational.  A High School tournament at California State Fullerton.  Even though many of our entries were in Middle School, they still brought home a number of recognitions.

In Policy Debate, Natalie Wang was honored as the 4^th Overall Speaker.  In the Novice Division, Michael Wu earned Top Speaker and Lauren Song was the 2^nd Speaker on top of finishing as finalists.

In Varsity Public Forum, Middle School students Victor Luo and Tanya Yang (at her second tournament ever) advanced to Octafinals.  In Novice, Eric Deng and Aaron Fong finished in finals.

Despite competing in Varsity for the first time at a High School tournament as a 7^th grader, Justin Jiang advanced to elimination rounds and lost in a valiant effort to an experience High School Senior in Octafinals.  The hard work of all teams at this tournament set up the foundation for future success at Nationals.

At the final league tournaments, Kelly Wong and Victor Luo earned first and third place in Sightreading.  Shiriya Padegepati earned first place in Congressional Debate and the team of Ian Chen and Vincent Liu advanced to elimination rounds in Public Forum.  Kelly Wong and Victor Luo finished in first place of Policy debate.

Also to note are our state qualifiers!  These students come to Kudos for training in speech and debate even though they compete for their own high school

and qualified to the state tournament.

Kirk Wu – San Marino – Policy Debate

Audrey Lam – San Marino – Lincoln-Douglas

Jon Le – Oxford – International Extemperaneous.