Debate can be hard. It’s supposed to be — a rigorous challenging and testing of ideas from one’s peers shouldn’t be easy. When we’re talking about regional competitions, which bring together folks from across a dozen states, many with substantial resources to help them prepare, it can be even harder. 

Yet this past weekend, several of WUDL’s teams made it look easy. College Park Academy’s Onyilofor / Agbor and Girls Global’s Montgomery / Pollard-Calliste cruised through the competition, before facing each other in the semi-final round. When the dust settled, College Park had won a closely contested 2-1 decision, advancing to finals, where they then defeated a worthy opponent, a Newark Science team that had knocked them out of, and eventually won the JV Division at the Dragon a month earlier. In a 2-1 decision in the final round, they evened the score. Onyilofor also was recognized as the 5th individual speaker. 

This was a breakout performance for both teams, and College Park learned how to answer more philosophical arguments on the fly, and Girls Global tested some new arguments, to clearly great success. 

They weren’t the only ones having a good weekend. Staying in JV, Eliot Hine’s Young / Thorn went to their 2nd regional competition, and went to their second set of elimination rounds, only losing to Girls Global in Quarterfinals. BASIS DC’s Schmidt / Seghal, attending their 4th tournament ever, also advanced to elimination rounds, a first for the fast rising duo. 

In Varsity, 4 WUDL teams went into the last round in a win or go home playoff (BASIS DC’s Choi / Mazumdar, Phelps’s Howard / Cox, Walls’s Balk / Mallia, and a hybrid team of Neuroth / Pierce). Only Neuroth / Pierce advanced, narrowly losing a 2-1 in the Octo-Final round. 

This was the largest travel contingent WUDL has ever taken to a tournament, 48 students filling up a 56 passenger bus with a few chaperones trailing behind in a trail car. Many thanks to alumni Aisha Bah, Liv Birnstad, and Zara Escobar for meeting us at the competition, to Clarke Dickens, who we picked up on the way, and to Eric Clarke, Noah Joshua, Letitia Haffner, and Dennis Martinez for coming along with us. 

We’ll see you in two weeks at DCI on Dec. 16th!