The Kudos Middle School Debate Teams competed at their first online tournament of the year and walked away with some excellent results. Kudos had students in the top two of Student Congress, Lincoln Douglas and Public Forum. We are very pleased with the positive accolades the students brought home this tournament. Onto the awards!

Starting in Congress, Kudos 6 of the top 7 students in congressional debate, including 8 of the 13 finalists. We also had 10 of the top 15 as well as 14 of the top 20. Shoutouts to first year Carrie Rao and third year Annie Zhao for being the winner of their preliminary chambers. This is the 2nd tournament in a row that Carrie has won her preliminary chamber. Carrie and Sanju have been top two in their prelim and top four overall after prelims at all three tournaments this year. Annie and fellow returner John Dong accomplished the same feat at all three tournaments placing top five in their prelim and top nine overall. Ella Fan has also done this by being top four in her prelims and top eight overall heading into outrounds at all three tournaments. These five as well as Betty Chen, Zoey Luc, and Hayley Fung have broken at every tournament they’ve attendended. Kayli Tang also earned props for being top six in her chamber and top 12 overall after all three tournament prelims. 1st years Ashley Ma and Ardent Lin deserve praise for their first breaks ever! In particular, Ashley went from last place at her previous tournament to finaling at this competition. Overall, Carrie, Ella, Sanju, Annie and John, were not only five of the top six, but they earned 10 of the 12 available 1st places ranks that were given by judges throughout prelims and elims combined.

On the Lincoln Douglas side, returners Yuna Wu, Harry Chen, and William Lin all won top speaker awards as they were all in the top seven. Harry is on a roll as he has earned a speaker award at each tournament this year. First year Rebecca Ho also deserves congratulations for being top speaker in the tournament. Coach Pepper was not surprised as Rebecca was the first person done with her case, and the first person to have prepared cutting all of her cards. The Lincoln Douglas girls cleaned house this tournament with Yuna, Rebecca, and Grace Yang making up half of the breaks in LD. They were also three of the top four with Rebecca and Yuna taking 1st and 2nd.

Finally in Public Forum , congratulations to Jayden Huang and Derek Hu for taking 2nd place. They lost in finals to Katherine Duan who was tournament champion with her school partner. Katherine, Anson Cheang and Claire Xuan all deserve credit for earning speaker awards. Katherine. This is Katherine’s 2nd tournament championship and she’s now done so in Lincoln Douglas AND Public Forum

Go Kudos!