The Adam J. Rubinson Memorial Tournament was a great success, and we’ve already shared exciting news about our qualifiers, but we also had lots of students participating in the non-qualifying divisions as well! 

As we’ve said for every tournament this year,  this tournament was our largest yet, with 8 more students than we had at Hart! 

In JV: 

Banneker’s Mohammed and Belaye took a big step forward and won the JV division, going undefeated. Two Alice Deal teams (Wilkins / Bernstein and Kimbrell / Kaprowski) were also undefeated, as was a hybrid team from Creative Minds and Charles Flowers (McPherson / Adepetu). 

Alice Deal had a great day in JV, with 3 more teams winning awards, along with CMIT North, BASIS DC, and Forest Park’s Fludd/Lewis, their school’s first awards at this level this season. Alice Deal’s Schonebaum was the top speaker, followed by Kettering’s Onwubuche.

In Novice: 

Alice Deal’s Rosenberg / Marentette won the division, followed by Chabot/Neal, also from Deal, in 3rd. In second place, DuVal’s Silva / Chicaslevia also went undefeated. Before the tournament, the team’s morale was low, as they questioned if they belonged on their school’s team. I think that question has been answered emphatically, yes (and even if the wins weren’t there, that’s not the point of debate!).  Kettering’s Garner was the top speaker, while Chicaslevia was 2nd speaker, and Silva was 8th. Rosenberg (5th) and Marentette (3rd) also won speaker awards. 

In Rookie: 

This was Oyster Adam’s Division, with all of their entries winning awards. Risher / Schuettpelz was the only undefeated team, finishing in 1st place, while teammates Berrios and Pinol finished 4th and Parekh/Patel finished 7th and Giron / Lucero finished 9th. 

Shout outs: 

To ETA, our Sorority partner at George Washington University. The sisters came out to judge all day, sharing their wisdom and feedback to students. Thank you for seven great years of partnership! 

To Alice Deal: They took home 30(!) awards across Novice and JV. Definitely time for some promotions for March. 

To Seneca Valley: Palacios / Alexander were the top 3-1 team (4th) in Novice, in the school’s 2nd tournament ever, as well as the 10th and 11th speakers in the division. They’ve already emailed to say they wanna try JV in March. 

To CMIT South: 5th was the magic number, as Gebeyehu / Omotosho finished 5th in Novice, the school’s best finish to date, and Abang / Muse finished 5th in Rookie. Gebeyehu was the 4th overall Novice speaker, while in Rookie, Abang was the 6th speaker and Muse was 9th. Coach Brent is doing a great job building a program at CMIT South. 

To Richard Wright’s Sheppard / McCrae (8th in Novice) for winning their school’s best placing so far. The team also had their largest contingent competing this tournament. 

To College Track, for winning their 1st awards in program history. Lee/Smith were in 15th place in our enormous Novice Division, finishing 3-1. Working with Coach Zucker and Coach Jones-Cooper has been very easy and gratifying, we love our first non-school based partner! 

To SWW Francis Stevens: Flynn / Abiy were 3rd in Rookie, while Flynn was 2nd, Abiy was 5th individual speaker. The team is growing and succeeding despite their late season debut. 

To Chavez: Howard and Holiday finished 15th in Rookie, their school’s best results thus far! 

To Thurgood Marshall’s Tubbs / Dallas for moving up to JV for the first time in school history.