The Paly debate team is looking forward to tournaments such as the Tournament of Champions and the Nationals Qualifying tournament after winning numerous speaker awards at the Harker School Howard & Diana Nichols Invitational in San Jose this weekend.
“It always feels great when hard work, teamwork, and dedication pays off, which it clearly has for the Paly debate team this year,” head debate coach Jennie Savage said. “It is also a thrill to have our team, which is noted as one of the teams with the most intellectual and personal integrity, do so well in competition.”
Sophomores Alex Lenail and Steven Hu won the Policy novice division while junior Scott Zhuge and senior Nate Munger got into the final round in Policy Debate but came in second.
“I would have liked to win, but the team we lost to in finals was pretty good, so there’s no real shame in losing to them,” Munger said. “The LD [Lincoln-Douglas] debaters, especially Nikhil Bhargava, who won a speaker award and was in quarterfinals, did a really nice job. That’s definitely a more impressive feat, because the field for LD was much harder than the policy field.”
Zhuge was pleased with the results of the tournament.
“Last year Nate [Munger] and [junior] Chloe [Chen] also made it to finals, so at least we matched our previous record,” Zhuge said. “Everyone’s goal should be to win the tournament, but you have to be realistic afterwards in realizing that only one team will go home the winner. There were some close calls, so I feel satisfied with our overall performance. It could have been much worse.”
Bhargava advanced to quarterfinals, putting him in the top eight LD debaters in the tournament.
“I would have liked to do a little better, but all the same I am content with my performance,” Bhargava said.
Several members of the Paly debate team earned speaker awards, including Munger, senior Abby LaPier and sophomore Nassim Fedel, who won fourth, ninth and eighth speaker respectively, and Bhargava, who won 10th speaker in LD Debate. Lenail was also third speaker in the Policy novice division.
According to Bhargava, in addition to a win or a loss in each round, each debater is assigned speaker points on a 30-point scale. Judges award between 25 to 30 points, with 25 and below reserved for offensive and rude behavior. These speaker points are a subjective measure evaluating the quality of arguments as well as the speaking style of the debater. According to Bhargava, the judges tallied up speaker points at the end of the tournament and those with the highest values earned a speaker award.
Fedel enjoyed the experience of the tournament, as he won his second speaker award ever.
“To me, the most memorable moment was the surprise of winning a speaker award, since I had only done that once before,” Fedel said. “Also, the tournament was just a really fun experience to hang out and strategize with my partner and the Paly team.”
Bhargava will debate at the Nationals Qualifying tournament from March 19 to 21 in the LD division. Chen and Fedel will attend the tournament as a policy debate team.
Editor’s note: Abby LaPier and Chloe Chen are staff members of The Paly Voice.