The Lexington Winter Invitational is one of the largest and most competitive tournaments that WUDL attends. Teams from all over the country, including Florida, California, the Midwest, and beyond. 

WUDL traveled overnight to the tournament, sleeping on the bus and arriving bright eyed and bushy tailed for the competition. 

Teams from Academy of Health Sciences, Banneker, BASIS DC, Duke Ellington, Eliot Hine, Forest Park, Hardy, Roosevelt, and Walls rode the bus, with Claire and Ayisha of Academy of Health Sciences making their regional debut. 

Given the large snowstorms that hit the Northeast this past weekend, the tournament adjusted their schedule, shortening the tournament a bit and scrambling everyone’s competitive goals half-way through. With the furthest to go home (at least via bus and not flying out Monday night), and no hotel reservations on Sunday, we drove straight through it home.

The highlights are as follows:

Three teams advanced to Varsity elimination rounds: 

• From School Without Walls, Zahra and Marie-Celeste advanced to elimination rounds, and as the 8th  overall seed, they got a “bye” to the Octo-Final rounds. This is the first time that Walls has had students advance to a ToC Qualifying round after many Octo-Finals rounds the last few years. Unfortunately, they were defeated by Bronx Science in that Octos round.
• Jack and Margaret (BASIS DC) advanced to elimination rounds, in pursuit of their 2nd ToC bid. They faced off against Nova Southeastern, a powerhouse from Florida, who, unfortunately, eliminated them from the tournament. 
• Daniella and Sitara (BASIS DC) advanced to elimination rounds as well, pursuing their first ToC bid this year (after qualifying last year). They defeated 1 Northstar Academy team in the Double Octos, but lost to the other Northstar Academy team in the Octo-Finals. 
• In lieu of a JV division, the tournament offered a separate elimination bracket for the less experienced competitors. Bobby and Louise, the youngest team in the pool, advanced through the Semi-Finals to the Final round, losing on a 2-1 decision. Nevertheless, this is a great accomplishment for such a young squad! 
• Special congrats to Claire and Ayisha from Academy of Health Sciences for joining their first travel competition. These intrepid students re-started their school’s team in October, and have led the way since, winning trophies each local tournament since then. While they took some tough losses this weekend, they learned more in a weekend than they have in months of local debate. 

Thanks for our great prep team: 

• David, Mac, and Danielle from WUDL Staff
• Alumni Clarke, Eric, and Aisha
• Coaches Nala and Messai

Check back in two weeks to see the results from the Pennsbury Falcon Invitational, our last travel tournament of the season.