Chesterton High School’s streak of State Championships ended at five this past weekend in Kokomo. West Lafayette won the overall sweepstake’s award with a total of 62.5 to Chesterton’s 45. Munster, Penn, and Valparaiso rounded out the top five.

Chesterton had its chances, but the depth of West Lafayette proved to be too much. Coach Chris Lowery was proud of how his kids performed at the tournament, stating “Our kids worked hard throughout the year, but the regular season results made it clear that the senior heavy West Lafayette team was the favorite coming in. If two or three decisions had gone in our favor, the result would have dramatically changed.”

Chesterton’s best performance came from one of the most consistent seniors, Eric Dreischerf. Already a national qualifier in Lincoln-Douglas debate, Eric was one of a handful of favorites for the championship. Eric finished third overall after being defeated on a 2-1 decision to the eventual state champion in semifinals. Corinne Leopold and Eric Zhong also placed in Lincoln-Douglas as octafinalists (top 16).

Chesterton had all five of its competitors score points in Congressional Debate. Mikaela Meyers and Andrea Drygas both advanced to the final round of competition. Meyers finished ninth overall and Drygas was 11th. Taryn Trusty and McKenzie Richardson made the Semifinals, while Andrew Caratini was named a Speaker of the House in the Presiding Officer competition.

Chesterton also qualified all of its Public Forum competitors to elimination rounds. The teams of Ronald Kovach and Jessica Ratel-Khan and Christian O’Brien and Salman Lakhani qualified for octafinals. Savannah Tipton and Matt Eggers and Tyler Colvin and Nathan Burris qualified as quarterfinalists (top eight) before falling to the eventual finalists.

In Policy Debate, sophomores Nadia Mario and Katherine Bolek were quarterfinalists. The teams of Humaira Khan and Elaine Tagert as well as Kaley Brown and Emily Perceifield were octafinalists.

Also representing the 25 student roster for the Trojans were Zach Bogich and Simon Andrews (policy) and Abby Burke (LD). Joining the team was a support staff of students, graduates, and coaches including current members Ayesha Khan, Sana Ahmad, Hannah Vasquez, Tim Vincent, Galen Wong, and Joy Joll. Chesterton is coached by Chris Lowery, Carol Biel, and Shane Smith.

“Although we wish that we could have sent our seniors out with another title, I’m happy knowing that each and every single senior on the team was a part of a previous state title championship,” said coach Lowery. “Although the six seniors will be missed next year, they have done a phenomenal job of developing next year’s team, which will have 19 of the 25 members of this team returning.”

Posted 2/4/2013