I am excited to share the teams that will represent the Washington Urban Debate League at the Urban Debate Middle School National Championships this year:
WUDL students have a long history of doing well at this competition and are the defending Middle School National Champions (Kenmoor Middle School Bah/Cleveland, 2019, Inspired Teaching Perkins/Sipos (2020) and Stuart Hobson Neuroth/Sokolov, 2021). Good luck to all of our 2022 qualifiers!
Basis DC
-Julie Seth and Leah Pierce
-Sitara Mazumder and Violet Lockwood
These two teams have been inseparable from the awards podium for the last two years, and have paced the local JV division this year. They’ve broken to elimination rounds at multiple regional tournaments and are forced to be reckoned with.
Montgomery Village Middle School
-Aadhik Elangovan and Hisham Anjum
Aadhik was an Octo-Finalist at MS Nationals last year, and returns with a new partner who is a 1st year debater this year. Aadhik is the only MS qualifier to have ever been to an in person competition (2) in his debate career.
Oyster Adams
-Gavin Leonard and Symon Goldblatt
Returning to MS Nationals (Octo-Finalsists last year), the best team at Oyster has had some strong competitions and have ridden out some coach changes this year. They’re currently exploring a new affirmative case for the national tournament.
Statesman Academy
-Jacen Blalock and Kiye Corbitt
Jacen and Kiye are the leading partnership for up and coming 2nd year program Statesman Academy, an all-boys school just off Southern Ave. While they haven’t quite put up the competitive results of the other teams, they’ve worked harder and grown more than most of the folks on this list, which we’d like to reward. This will be their first competition outside the league.
Stuart Hobson
-William Neuroth and Percy Kyd-Bruneau
William won MS Nationals last year with a different partner, and returns to defend the title. Percy is hungry and dedicated, they’ve been doing the most advanced casewriting of our middle school teams by far.
