The Palo Alto High School Speech and Debate Team is celebrating a strong appearance following a successful weekend at the California State University Long Beach Jack Howe Tournament from Sept. 29 to Sept. 30.

Three of the eight varsity Paly debaters who attended the tournament reached the elimination rounds in the varsity Lincoln Douglas division. Junior Addie McNamara got to octafinals, sophomore Coby Parker made semifinals and senior Esha Datta reached finals. McNamara also earned the 10th speaker award.

“They [the debate team] did phenomenally well,” debate director Jennie Savage said.

Unfortunately, Datta was unable to compete in the final round.

“I had to concede the final round in order to catch my flight back to SFO [San Francisco International Airport],” Datta said.

This is the second year the Paly debate team has attended the Long Beach tournament since its first attendance in 2008.

“We [the debate team] attended Long Beach because a number of students showed interest in attending more away tournaments which were focused on persuasive debate,” Savage said.

The debate team’s next tournament will be the Voice Lincoln Douglas Debate Invitation and Round Robin Tournament from Oct. 5 to Oct. 8 at Presentation High School.

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