The Chesterton High
School debate team put together by far its best all around tournament to
date in this season. Chesterton students won five of the eight divisions
they entered at the Larry Stuber Memorial Tournament.
The teams most eye
popping performance came from the members competing in Congressional debate.
The team took the top four spots with Sid Augustyn taking home his first
tournament championship at the varsity level. He was followed closely by
teammates Paul Petro (2nd), Creighton Gaff (3rd), and Megan Daye (4th).
Coach Joshua Coots
was proud of his team. “The kids have worked hard to balance public speaking
and analytical debate. The effort definitely pays dividends and I hope this
sets a good precedent that other schools will follow,” he said.
Chesterton also
took the top two spots in Lincoln-Douglas debate, another event taught by
Coach Coots. Camma Duhamell was the only undefeated competitor and took home
the top spot for her first ever tournament title. Hannah Geiss won three out
of her four rounds and had the highest speaker points allowing her to take
home the runner-up award. At the novice level, Bella Auricchio took home
seventh place overall.
CHS took home the
top spots in both levels of competition in Public Forum debate, an event
coached by Dakota McCoy. At the varsity level, Grace Whah and Katelyn
Balakir took home their first tournament title of the year by going
undefeated. Also the teams of Bella Jennings and Salomae Minniear came in
third, Emily Krygoske and Calvin Anders were fourth, and Connor Wantuch and
Ryan Day were sixth. These performances were the highest varsity placings in
the young careers of sophomores Whah, Jennings, Minniear, Krygoske, and
Anders.
Also reaching a new
high point for their first season were Jenna Aguilar and Nick Hanson who
took home the tournament title in novice Public Forum. Luke Vetrocsky and
Robbie Geiss went three and one and took home fourth place.
Ryan Donovan and
Ethan Dibble won their second tournament of the year after taking home the
Valparaiso title. The team of Jackson Fleming and Shae Hisaw also went three
and one and had their best tournament coming in fourth for the tournament.
Gianna Galante and Karina Martinez took sixth place. Additionally, the teams
of Devin Michael and JD Cory (2nd), Sofia Winski and Madison Simms (3rd),
and Ben Hoham and Matthew Jewison (8th) all placed in the varsity division
of Policy debate.
The team’s
performance earned it a second straight team sweepstakes championship after
amassing a whopping 109 points to West Lafayette’s 61.5.
The team will now
take a couple of weekends off and begin preparing for the December slate of
tournaments which includes Chesterton’s home meet on December 9.