Debate Excels on National Circuit
Barstow Debate won eleven policy debate awards at the JW Patterson Invitational, hosted by Heritage Hall in Oklahoma City Oct. 20-23.
Sixteen schools from six states competed at the national circuit tournament. Two varsity teams, Paranjay Sharma & Ava Levin and Tyler Bauman & Jayden Sampat, advanced to the top 16 and debated in the octo-final elimination round. Paranjay was named the eighth place speaker, and Jayden was ninth.
Lex Schlesener and Mohammad Abu bakr earned second place in the novice division, and three other novice teams made the top eight. Lex and Mohammad went 8-1; their first loss didn’t come until the final round.
Olivia Richards & Alex Dean, Sydney Westphal & Mikey Kulp, and Adit Rastogi & Duha Azaz advanced to the quarterfinals in novice. Four of Barstow’s six novice teams advanced to elimination rounds, filling half the bracket, while no other school had more than one.
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Lex Schlesener and Mohammad Abu bakr earned second place in the novice division, and three other novice teams made the top eight. Lex and Mohammad went 8-1; their first loss didn’t come until the final round.
Olivia Richards & Alex Dean, Sydney Westphal & Mikey Kulp, and Adit Rastogi & Duha Azaz advanced to the quarterfinals in novice. Four of Barstow’s six novice teams advanced to elimination rounds, filling half the bracket, while no other school had more than one.
The novices also won speaker awards. Adi Rastogi was the seventh-place speaker, Alex Dean was the eighth, and Olivia Richards was the tenth. Jayden Sampat and Tyler Bauman entered the elimination rounds as the fifth seed after earning stellar speaker points in preliminary debates. They lost a narrow 2-1 decision in the partial octo-final elimination round. Paranjay Sharma and Ava Levin were the seventh seed.
