Members of the Palo Alto High School’s debate team are proud of their accomplishments at the New York City Invitational on Oct. 16-18.

At the debate competition, the policy team debated about social services in the United States, while the Lincoln Douglas team debated whether or not schools ought to have exit exams, according to senior John Olson.

Out of a pool of 209 speakers, senior debater Avi Arfin was one of the 32 finalists, and placed tenth speaker in the Lincoln Douglas (LD) Division. Despite his high ranking, Arfin felt he could have done better individually, but was pleased with the team’s overall effort.

“I would have liked to do better,” Arfin said. “I’m happy how we worked as a team and supported each other well.”

Nikhil Bhargava was among the top 64, of the LD division. Similar to Arfin, Bhargava was impressed with the teamwork of the debate club.

“As an individual I did okay, but the team as a whole exceeded expectations,” Bhargava said.

In policy debate, Olson and his partner, junior Scott Zhuge, cleared to the elimination rounds.

“We went [to the New York City Invitational] last year, but didn’t get to elimination rounds based on our speaker points,” Olson said. “This year it was my goal to clear into elimination rounds. It also gave us a good experience to go to elimination rounds.”

Olson was glad he achieved all his goals and looks forward to potentially competing in the Tournament of Champions, held at the University of Kentucky in early May.

“We really achieved every goal,” Olson said. “I felt we earned it. It opened my and my partner’s eyes to getting in to qualify for the Tournament of Champions.”

The Debate team is preparing for its next major tournament at USC in November.