Phil Historian Results 2023

Even though it was Kudos’ spring break, the congressional debate team spent extra time last week to compete at the Philhisorian Middle School and High School Championships. Six students went to an extra practice and spent time competing at this tournament hosted by Santa Clara University. This tournament was unique in that they divided middle school congress into two divisions: varsity, and novice. Our competitors came out victorious, with five of our six students advancing to the final round.

All of our students deserve praise for earning a 1st place ranking from at least one judge during the tournament. Special shoutouts to Joshua Qiu for his first 1st of the year. Additionally, all six students ranked top five in prelims on the ballot from their parliamentarian. This is particularly special, because parliamentarians give rankings on all three rounds combined, rather than just one individual round. Ethan Li, John Dong and Michelle Pan also should be applauded for getting a 1st place ranking from at least HALF of the ten judges who saw their debates. Michelle did particularly well, by almost picket fencing (where a student gets all 1st place ranks) in prelims (her only non-1st was a 2nd place ranking. Congratulations are due for John, Michelle Cheng, and Michelle Pan, who AVERAGED a rank of 2nd place amongst the ten judges that evaluated their performances (including finals). Both Michelles’, Ethan, John and Edwin Jiao also were ranked top five by every of the seven judges that saw them in the preliminary rounds. John and the Michelle’s continued this trend even throughout their final round.

Of the 60 ballots that our students received at this tournament, a whopping 90% (54) of those ballots ranked our students inside the top eight. Cheers to John and Michelle Cheng for breaking at a non-league tournament for the very first time. They both were top three in their division, with John being named tournament champion. Kudos was the only school in their division to have two students in the top eight, let alone the top three. In the varsity division, Kudos had the 2nd most finalists with Ethan taking 11th, Edwin taking 9th and Michelle Pan being named the runner up champion. Great Job Kudos!!

Philhistorian Results