Debate schools from Northern Indiana gathered this weekend at Concord High School to determine the debaters who will go to the National Forensic League National Speech and Debate Tournament this June. Of the six slots available CHS debaters took five and qualified four teams and one individual to the national tournament.

Chesterton is a member of the Northeast Indiana NFL District and the tournament consisted of preliminary rounds of competition in Policy, Lincoln-Douglas, and Public Forum. Competitors debated in a double elimination format where a second defeat eliminated the debater. Rounds proceeded until only two teams or individuals were remaining.

Qualifying from Chesterton were:

Public Forum: Mike Hadley and Tyler Fabbri, 5-0 and Kurtis Kolb and Riley Golden, 4-1.

Policy: Jessica Povlinski and Rachel Marvin, 5-0 and Alex Steciuch and Greg Gentry 4-1.

Lincoln-Douglas:Tom Geairn, 5-0.

Also competing for Chesterton and placing were Ankur Chawla, 4th in Lincoln-Douglas; Dan Leopold, 6th in Lincoln-Douglas; Jordan Hoover and Syed Shah 3rd in Public Forum; Alec Donelson and Adam Potrzebowski, 4th in Public Forum; Ben Andrews and Jeff Tucker, 3rd in Policy; and Kailey Paglia and Chasity Mottinger, 4th in Policy.

The debaters arrived home late Saturday evening, took Sunday off to recover, and now begin preparing for the State Debate Tournament this coming weekend.

Posted 1/29/2008