After many years of incredibly strong returning students dominating our Middle School Qualifying process, this year’s qualifying process was a wide open field, with only three returning qualifiers in the pool. 

We are excited to see some new faces and new schools representing the region, and the hard work of those who threw their hat in the ring for the opportunity. 

Stuart Hobson has been the strongest MS program in the region for a while now, but came in with only one team that had qualified before – Zeve Ben-Shalom / Ian Nwagwu. While they came in with a lot of experience, and wrote a compelling affirmative case at summer camp, they were far from consistent this year, debating with other partners and not showing up at all sometimes. For the spring semester, however, it was all business. They advanced to elimination rounds at Pennsbury and they comfortably led the qualifying pool. 

What wasn’t clear, even when coming into the qualifiers, was if they’d have any company at Hobson. 

Chloe Jones had made some noise at the Dragon, advancing to Semi-Finals with a hybrid partner from Thurgood Marshall, but hadn’t had a consistent partner or another standout performance…until quals. Together with Max McWhirter, experimenting with arguments about disability that are uncomfortable debates for most middle school students, that made two teams. 

GiGi BrucknerRust and Kaylana West were hard working Novices whose names were known to WUDL staff, partially because Kendrick West (Dad) was a reliable volunteer judge. But they buckled down with Coach Jon Alfuth, and got comfortable debating outside the packet just in time for qualifiers run. That was three. And all Hobson was getting this time. 

The remaining returning debater who qualified last year was Louise Taylor. Last year, Louise (6th grade) and Bobby Thorn (8th) were a dynamic duo, attending regional tournaments and doing well. This year, Louise eventually settled on Bobby’s little sister Eliza as a partner, and didn’t miss much of a beat. The 7th grade duo went to many regional tournaments and continued some notable success. While they couldn’t attend the 2nd half of the qualifier due to a wedding, they were an easy selection to choose to represent WUDL given their strong year-long performance. 

Oyster Adams has often represented WUDL at MS Nationals, but hadn’t done so in several years. Streak broken. Xander Ferris-Artiga and Berrin Gucuk stood out to WUDL at summer camp as an early break out team, and continued to do so all season, with Xander and Louise debating together once at regionals, and when Berrin couldn’t attend Nationals, Xander picked up his partner from his alt ego, where he and Maite Quintann frequently win trophies in our Debate en Espanol division. Unable to qualify to nationals based on their age this year, they were a breeze to qualify for MS Nationals.  

Our last spot was a tough choice, including several standout teams that went straight from a packet division to a regional qualifier, and held their own. Kettering’s Karamoko Kourouma was the MS Debater of the Year for WUDL last season, but with a new coach this year, they got a later start and didn’t get accelerated quite as fast as they would have otherwise. After dominating Novice, they locked in, requested extra coaching, and made the jump. 

Shout Outs to our alternates:

Francis Hammond’s debate program got started this Fall in October. Coach Pederson has done a great job rounding up a new program, and has dominated the lower divisions, collecting most of the Rookie trophies in the Winter. I told him, throw your best teams in quals, see what happens, because you never know how folks will adapt. For most of his students, it proved a steep climb, and 4/5 teams he threw in the first half dropped down a bit for the second half of the qualifier. Fares and Elias, however, went 3-1 and held their own. Despite never debating outside a packet before, they won most of their rounds and captured our imagination. We know that Francis Hammond will be a regular qualifier in the coming years. 

BASIS DC has a great present roster of high power high school stars, representing us at the ToC, with four other juniors / seniors advancing to elimination rounds at regionals. There aren’t many debaters on the team between those upper classmen, and a squad of 7th grade boys, Murray, Philip, Felipe, and Rahgav. These four boys have been the JV squad this year, attended multiple regionals, and eventually had Murray and Philip make a strong push for MS Nationals. While they didn’t make it this season, all four as strong favorites next season, ready to bring MS Nats Title back to BASIS DC after a four year absence.