Jesuit Debate finished the regular season with a bang in mid-February. Jesuit Debate attended six different tournaments in late January and early February: three in Texas, two in California, and one in Georgia. Goals were achieved, records were broken, and tough losses were had, but the Jesuit team remained resilient and optimistic through it all.
Barkley Forum at Atlanta
The Barkley Forum in Atlanta, Georgia was hosted at Emory University. Teams of Jack Moore ’19 and Riler Holcombe ’19, and Jack Griffiths ’19 and Chris Tran ’19 attended the 100-team tournament. Students from over 20 states attended. Jesuit alone debated schools from Louisiana, Florida, Georgia, California, Minnesota, and New York. Griffiths and Tran went 3-3 at the challenging tournament, but Moore and Holcombe earned a hard-fought 4-2 score, qualifying in the elimination rounds. Tragically, they lost to Stuyvesant from New York City, placing them 17th overall. In addition, Moore earned 60th speaker of 200, an impressive landing in the top 30%.
The Barkley Forum in Emory is renowned for its tradition. The tournament in its modern form dates back to the late 1950’s, but the debate program has been established at Emory since as early as when Emory was founded in 1837. Consequently, many famous people have debated there, including former president Ronald Reagan.
Griffiths commented about his debates at the tournament: “It was a solid performance considering it was the first time in the tournament for my partner and me…We had some close debates with some great teams and thus learned a lot of lessons we can take advantage of in the postseason.”
Holcombe also had similar sentiments. “I’m happy about clearing at another national tournament, but the next step after this is to win multiple rounds at national tournaments. The deep-rooted tradition at the tournament was amazing to see. Its similarity to the Jesuit Profile of the Graduate made me feel at home at the tournament.”
Flower Mound Tournament
The Flower Mound Tournament took place the same weekend as Emory, with hopeful teams of Adam Hall ’20 and Garrett Nagorzanski ’20, and Ashik Amar ’19 and Logan Kim ’19 looking to qualify for the Texas state tournament in March. Both teams went 3-2 in the qualifying rounds, barely making it into the elimination rounds, but facing the two highest seeds at the tournament. Hall and Nagorzanski sadly lost in the quarterfinals to debaters from Lindale. Amar and Kim won the first elimination round against Hebron but took a heartbreaking loss in the semifinals to McKinney Boyd. The Sophomore and Junior teams took 5th and 3rd respectively.
Hall reflected on the tournament: “I wasn’t super disappointed with our performance at Flower Mound, as we only lost to one of the best teams in the state, but it was unfortunate to lose.” However, he is looking to the end of March. “Garrett and I still have the Woodward tournament in Georgia left, and we plan to win the whole thing.”
Amar commented on the achievements he accomplished at the tournament. “I’m happy that we were able to beat the number two seeded team at the tournament. I think that shows our improvement and capacity to succeed in the future.”
Colleyville Heritage Winter Invitational
The Colleyville Heritage Winter Invitation in Texas took place the weekend of February 2nd-3rd. A regional tournament, it featured 62 teams from mainly Texas, Kansas, and Louisiana. Jesuit brought seven teams to the tournament: Moore and Holcombe, Tran and Griffiths, Amar and Kim, Nagorzanski and Hall, Ethan Jackson ’19 and Giovannie Ferrer-Falto ’19, Pete Weigman ’19 and Jack Madden ’19, and Ben Miller ’18 and Max Arroyo ’20. Fierce competition across the five preliminary rounds landed teams across the record spectrum. Only Moore and Holcombe cleared to the elimination rounds but lost in the first round to Westside from Houston, Texas. A top ten finish, followed by Miller and Arroyo, and Griffiths and Tran who landed in the top 20.
Jackson positively commented on the state of Jesuit debate as of Colleyville. “I think that the team has improved by a tremendous amount.”
Griffiths shared a similar sentiment. “Jesuit is on the precipice of being a top-tier threat; it’s just a question of our relatively younger squad continuing to learn and hone our skills so we can challenge debaters from rival Texas schools.”
Madden and Weigman’s first tournament together, Madden thought “the Colleyville tournament was a good testing ground for Pete’s and my partnership, and I hope to use that experience to do well at the state tournament.”
College Prep School Round Robin and the Cal Invitational at UC Berkeley
The fourth tournament was the prestigious College Prep Round Robin, hosted by the College Prep School in California. An exclusive tournament, only fourteen of the best teams in the country came to debate against one another. Holcombe and Moore debated against teams from California, Florida, and Oregon.
About the Round Robin, Moore said that “It was a great experience where we got to debate some of the best teams in the country.”
As soon as the College Prep School Round Robin ended, the Cal Invitational at UC Berkeley began. In addition to Moore and Holcombe, Jesuit also flew in Jackson and Ferrer-Falto to debate face off against 185 teams from fifteen states. Moore and Holcombe went 4-2 in the prelim rounds once again. In the triple-octofinals (best of 64), they faced off against the College Prep School from California, winning on a 2-1 decision. They advanced to the double-octofinals, only to lose to the 3rd best team at the tournament: Camas High School from Washington state.
Moore commented that everything about the tournament was great. “The tough competition made the tournament fun, but the food was fantastic in the Oakland area.”
Holcombe said “the Berkeley tournament was our most successful tournament thus far, and I’m happy that we were able to win elimination rounds.”
Looking Forward
The Jesuit Debate team concluded its regular season with an amazing record, getting into elimination rounds at almost every tournament, and taking first at two tournaments this year. Looking forward to the rest of the season, both Jackson and Moore have commented on wanting to win state.
Griffiths promises to “work especially hard in the upcoming weeks in preparation for the state tournament,” and Hall looks to win the JV Nationals in Atlanta.
The State tournament, taking place from March 1st to March 4th, looms large in the not-too-distant-future. Moore believes “the biggest enemy is Greenhill because they got a lot of teams going to the state tournament and have also been experiencing competitive success recently.” He, however, places faith in every debater’s best friend: “cutting cards and doing research.”
Weigman put his goal most eloquently, embodying the true Jesuit debate spirit. “Win State.”
Stay tuned to the Roundup and follow Jesuit’s adventure into the post season state tournaments!
