Two weeks ago, we celebrated as Marcus from Forest Park was the Top Speaker in the Novice Division. This weekend, we gave him another Top Speaker Award — in JV. 

Marcus was one of many students who blew us away with their hard work, creative argumentation, and tenacity. We had five (!) new schools debut, and had the opportunity to work with two of our favorite partners during the event at Hart Middle School, in D.C.’s 8th Ward. 

White & Case has been a champion of debate all over the country, and we were so excited to work with them once again at the appropriately named White & Case Invitational. Not only did the firm sponsor the tournament, but a number of their attorneys, led by partner Dana Foster, served as judges for the event, sharing their expertise and wisdom with the competitors. 

We were also joined by ETA International Service Sorority at George Washington University. The sorority has been a long time partner with WUDL, with sisters serving as judges and coaches across the network, most recently with Coach White @ John Francis. 

We would like to also give a huge shout-out to Hart Middle School for rolling out the red carpet for us in their beautiful school. I found myself telling a lot of folks to “go left at the big beautiful mural,” only one of the artistic installations on campus. When we needed another room, or ice, or any of the little things that pop up mid event, Hart had it all, waiting for us. 

In honor of our 10th anniversary, we debuted a new category of awards this year, to recognize students who have done outstanding work between tournaments. This week, we recognized Penelope of Oyster Adams, and Addie of DC International for their efforts mentoring teammates getting ready for their first tournaments. 

Speaking of first, we had 5(!) new teams debuting that weren’t with us last year:

Coolidge High School, Friendship Tech High School, MacFarland Middle School, Monument Academy, Sojourner Truth. 

All four of these five teams had trophies to take home, and Coolidge was the best Novice team that didn’t get hardware, on the 2nd tiebreaker. 

Here are our tournament results: 

In Varsity, sibling power proved dominant as William / James went undefeated. Indeed, School Without Walls had a good weekend, with Zahra / Marie-Celeste and freshmen Marco / Evelyn finishing in the top 3. Banneker was right on their heels, with Henry / Max (freshmen), Madison / Sadie (freshmen), Rohan (and Victoria, representing Duke), and Nyla / Jack filling out the rest of the trophy hunt in 4th – 7th place. 

Shoutouts: 

Evelyn was won her first Top Speaker Award in Varsity as a freshman! 

In JV, Roosevelt’s Jerry and Sandiyah are quickly making a name for themselves. After going undefeated in Novice, they hopped up to JV, and went undefeated again! They’ll do their next tournament in the JV division of the Dragon, against regional competition, before moving to Varsity soon afterwards. 

After Round 3, the top 2 seeds were Addie / Ryder and Ella / Jackson from DCI, so we had a little fun and had them debate one another. Addie / Ryder emerged victorious, with Ella / Jackson in 6th overall. 

Freshmen Carmen and Arielle finished 3rd, their second consecutive tournament in the top 3 in the JV division. They’re on the fast-track to Varsity. Theo and Nate from Hardy (4th) in their season debut, Bobby and Louise of Eliot Hine (5th) rounded out the top 5: 

Shoutouts: 

Seneca Valley debuted this weekend, finishing 8th overall

Forest Park’s Marcus and Chardonnae finished 9th overall, with Marcus as the top speaker. 

Robert put EL Haynes on the board in their season debut, finishing as the 10th overall speaker

In Novice: 

We had unusual competitive parity in novice, with only Oscar / Margot (Hobson), JaiQi / Zadie (BASIS DC), and Zoe / Juniper (Banneker) going undefeated. 

Shoutouts: 

Ty and Max from School without Walls finishing 6th overall in their first debate ever

Caleb and Miracle of Friendship Tech winning their school’s first trophies ever, finishing 11th overall. 

Jessica and Yoselin of Coolidge finishing 16th, missing trophies on the 2nd tiebreaker. 

In Rookie: 

Yakin / Kiersten (John Francis), Emma / Caroline, Madison / Kimberly, Dasia / JoJo, and Maxine / Elizabeth (Hobson), Madeleine / Vy (Sojourner Truth), Alex and Berrin (Oyster Adams), and Karamoko / Gerson (Kettering) were all undefeated in a huge Rookie division. 

Shout outs: 

• Amen and Rachel of Redlands, winning their school’s first trophies of the season in their debut
• Ryan of Monument Academy won his school’s first award, Top Speaker
• Landon of Creative Minds was 5th Speaker, and will jump up to JV for the rest of the season. 
• Nicolle of MacFarland won her school’s first award ever, 8th Speaker