Speech and Debate Team Makes History at North Coast Districts

Congratulations to the Hawken Speech and Debate Team for their numerous successes in recent weeks. On February 4 and 5, they participated at the Cleveland District State Qualifying Tournament at Vermilion High School, where Margret Erlendsdottir '11 was named first alternate in the International Extemporaneous category, and Joe Soltzberg '11 and Lindsay Kopit '11 became state qualifiers in Lincoln Douglas Debate and Oratorical Interpretation, respectively. Previously qualifying for states were the three policy debate teams of Erica Duff '11 and Catherine Blebea '11, Jeffy Pignolet '11 and Paul Macklis '11, and Tony Hsieh '12 and Noah Geller '14.

On February 18 and 19, the team participated at the North Coast District National Qualifying Tournament at St. Ignatius High School, where Arthur Erlendsson '13 and Adam Wolf '13 were named quarter finalists in policy debate, Jeffy Pignolet '11 and Paul Macklis '11 were named first alternate to nationals in policy debate, and Ryan Looney '12 and Tim Perevozchikov '14 were named first alternate to nationals in public forum debate and qualifiers for the state tournament. For the third time in this district tournament’s 18-year history, Hawken won the tournament trophy. This is a cumulative sweepstakes trophy based on overall performance at the tournament. When a school wins the trophy, their points go back down to zero. When a school wins it three times, they keep the trophy permanently. Hawken is the first school to win the trophy three times, which means that the team holds the best overall record in the past 18 years of any school in the Cleveland area.

Subsequently, the Hawken Speech and Debate Team sent 13 students to the state tournament held in Toledo on March 5 and 6. Congratulations to Ryan Looney '12 and Tim Perevozchikov '14, octa-finalists in Public Forum Debate; Will Mascaro '14 and Ron Lubarsky '14, semi-finalists in Congressional Debate; Lindsay Kopit '11, semi-finalist in Oratorical Interpretation; quarter-finalists Erica Duff '11 and Catherine Blebea '11, who were the only policy debate team to go 6-0 in prelims and get a #1 seed; and Catherine Blebea '11, winner of the Phyllis Barton First place speaker award in Policy Debate.