The Paly debate team placed fifth in the Sixteenth Annual Jack Howe Memorial held Oct. 4-5 at California State University in Long Beach.

Juniors Abby LaPier and Grace Donzelli broke (made it to the elimination rounds) in the Senior Policy division of the tournament.

“We got really excited when Abby and Grace broke; it was the first time a Paly policy team had broken.” junior debator Natalie Campen said, “There was definite screaming.”

LaPier was also excited after making it so far in the tournament.

“We got to our round and the room was full of people watching us,” LaPier said. “It was thrilling and sort of terrifying.”

The Paly debate team consists of two parts, Policy and Lincoln Douglas. Policy teams debate in groups of two, and debate the same issue for the entire year, while Lincoln Douglas teams are individual, and debate a different topic for every tournament. The topic of debate for the Policy tournament was whether the United States federal government should increase alternative energy incentives in the United States. Out of six rounds, LaPier and Donzelli won four and lost two.

Shannee Braun broke for the Lincoln Douglas tournament. The debate was about whether it is morally permissible to kill one innocent person to save the lives of more innocent people.

The successes of Paly’s Policy debate team stem from a fairly new team.

“The Policy part of Paly’s debate team was just started a little over a year ago,” debate team captain junior Naazneen Essabhoy said. “Because of this, the fact that our Policy teams are competing at such a high level and breaking is amazing.”

According to LaPier, the team’s successes were all the more impressive because of the nature of the team.

“Some teams are really cutthroat about it [winning tournaments] and spend their lives prepping and cutting evidence and writing blocks, but we just had a great time,” LaPier said.

Despite the Policy team’s more easygoing approach to debate, Essabhoy was sure that Policy would do well.

“Although I was delighted to hear that Policy broke, it was hard to expect much less from such talented people.” Essabhoy said.