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October 5-6, 2019 – 2019 Aztec Invitational – San Diego State University

The ¹ú²ú͵ÅÄ Speech and Debate team competed in its first full debate tournament of the year at SDSU this past weekend and won First Place Overall for four year universities, and First Place Overall in Debate events, by over double the points of the next university. Twenty-six colleges and universities from California, Colorado and Arizona were competing.  

Last year’s ¹ú²ú͵ÅÄ Team finished the season in 2^nd Place in the yearlong National Sweepstakes in NPDA debate, and 5^th Place in the yearlong National Sweepstakes race for IPDA debate.

This year’s ¹ú²ú͵ÅÄ team has many new members, in part due to the large turnover from last year’s graduates. We realize that this year will be a learning and growing experience. But the results from this first tournament are promising, in large part due to a number of debaters who did well in a relatively new debate format for our program called IPDA that focuses on one debater versus one opponent, rather than the traditional team style with which we are more familiar. 

At this first tournament, we were fortunate enough to have ¹ú²ú͵ÅÄ debaters comprise 7 of the 8 debaters advancing to Quarterfinals of IPDA in the Open Division, meaning that these 7 Point Loma Debaters tied for first place after the remaining debater lost in Quarterfinals to Team Co-President Sam Jones.

Open Parliamentary Debate (NPDA Format):

• Hannah Nelson & James Laky (3-1 in prelims) Second Place Team
• Sam Jones & Alex Tseng (2-2 in prelims) Quarter-Finalists
• Logan Kolssak & Caleb Klubben (3-1 in prelims) Octo Finalists
• Ciaran O'Neill-Patrick & Maggie Valentine (2-2 in prelims) Octo Finalists

Speaker Awards:

• 6th Hannah Nelson
• 7th James Laky
• 10th Maggie Valentine

Novice Parliamentary Debate:

• Paris Swett & Sarah LeGrande (3-1 in prelims) Second Place Finish
• Brianna Seidler and Hannah Wald (2-2 in prelims) Quarter Finalists

Speaker Awards:

• 2nd - Sarah LeGrande
• 4th - Hannah Wald
• 9th - Brianna Seidler

Open IPDA LD:

• Sam Jones - Tied for First Place (SF, won Quarter-Final round) (4-0 in prelims)
• Hannah Nelson - Tied for First Place (SF bye to semi-finals) (4-0 in prelims)
• Logan Kolssak  - Tied for First Place (SF bye to semi-finals) (4-0 in prelims)
• Maggie Valentine - Tied for First Place (SF bye to semi-finals) (4-0 in prelims)
• Ciaran O'Neill-Patrick - Tied For First Place (Walkover in Quarters) (3-1 in prelims)
• James Laky - Tied for First Place (Walkover in Quarters) (3-1 in prelims)
• Zeshan Monks-Hussain - (Walkover in Quarters) (2-2 in prelims)

Novice IPDA LD:

• Paris Swett - First Place (3-1 in prelims)

Open NFA LD:

• Alex Tseng - Quarter-Finalist (3-1 in prelims)
• Corinna Willard - Quarter-Finalist (2-2 in prelims)  

Special thanks to our Coaches, alumni and supporters for their help in coaching and judging. We are especially grateful to ¹ú²ú͵ÅÄ adjuncts Jonathan Veal, Stephen Hosmer and new Assistant Director Julia Shotwell.             

And thanks to our campus faculty and administration for supporting these students in this important learning activity.