“we beat greenhill!” –Dominic Chacko ’23
Jesuit debaters are widely known for excellent showings at competitive tournaments despite a practice-time disadvantage against peer schools. True to form, Jesuit experienced serious successes this season, with two tournament closeouts and advancing to elimination rounds at most tournaments. So far, Jesuit Debate participated in 4 local tournaments and 6 national-level tournaments! Here are some highlights of the season so far!
Heart of Texas Tournament at St. Mark’s
Four varsity debaters participated in this national-level tournament.
Seniors Tejas Murugesh and Lawrence Jin advanced to the Double-Octafinals of the tournament, securing the first Jesuit elimination debate of the season!
Ben Brainard ’24 and Caden Cutchall ’24 finished 3-3 after winning against Crossings Christian from Oklahoma.
Junior-sophomore combos Peter Loh ’24 and Luke Lastelick ’25 finished 1-5, while Brandon Gibson ’24 and Leo Ramirez ’25 finished 2-4.
Hockaday Invitational
The Hockaday tournament proved to be a busy (and rewarding) weekend for our debaters as 7 teams in total competed!
In the Varsity division, Tejas and Lawrence finished 2-2 in Varsity, losing in the quarterfinals against St. Marks. Peter/Luke Dominic/Kyle also finished 2-2. Ben and Leo finished 1-3.
Sophomore Levy Mendoza bravely competed solo in the varsity division and finished 0-4.
In the Novice division, Nathan Pascas, Alex Ramsey, and Evans Senvalds debated together and advanced all the way to the semifinals, losing a close round to St. Marks. Henry Banse and Langdon Carver finished 2-2.
The Longhorn Classic at UT Austin
Next, 4 varsity teams drove all the way to UT Austin for their first overnight tournament! All 4 teams had impressive showings against a massive total of 60 teams from over 5 different states!
Tejas and Lawrence finished 4-2 and made it to Octofinals, losing to Lawrence Free State.
Dominic and Kyle finished 3-3, after losing a close break-round against Liberal Arts and Science academy. Ben and Caden also finished 3-3. Peter and Luke lost another close break-round against Niles North, finishing 3-3.
Blake Invitational in Minnesota
During winter break, Seniors Tejas and Lawrence participated in the Blake Invitational in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The snow showers and frigid temperatures were but a few of many historic moments for Jesuit Debate!
Tejas and Lawrence finished in the quarterfinals, with Tejas earning 9th speaker overall and Lawrence earning 11th.
State Qualifiers in December – January
Jesuit debate experienced massive success qualifying for the state tournament, and dominating the local circuit.
Seniors Tejas and Lawrence won the Carroll TFA tournament after defeating Greenhill 3 times in a row in the elims, completing their state qualification in early December!
Junior/Sophomore Combo Peter Loh ’24 and Luke Lastileck ’25 closed out Jasper TFA, finishing their qualification to state, qualifying Senior/Juniors Dominic Chacko and Kyle Ma in the process!
Debaters’ Thoughts and Closing Remarks
“The Debate season for me has been going well, I have learned new arguments and new ways to thing about arguments. This has been a huge help in almost making it to the elimination rounds at the Coppell tournament.” ~~ Langdon Carver ’26
“God, Glory, and Gold” ~~ Luke Lastelick ’25
“The debate season has been going phenomenally! Super proud to see both varsity and novice successes at Jasper and Coppell. It’s great to see my brothers progress and reap what they sow. In addition, I, with my partner Lawrence Jin, were able to get to the quarterfinals of the Blake tournament in Minnesota while also getting 9th and 11th speaker awards respectively, coupled with a bid to the Tournament of Champions!
It’s also great to see our good quality research win debates! For example, sophomore Luke Lastelick and junior Peter Loh were able to win against Greenhill and ultimately close out the tournament at Jasper through some research I did earlier in the year on a particular argument! This is a testament to the amazing research skills debaters will learn throughout their years on the debate team. Other juniors and sophomores have had similar experiences with their own research as well, which is awesome to see, as watching younger debaters gain more skill in important tools for society warms my heart. Not only do these sorts of skills win debates, but they also provide great opportunities for debaters to progress in their own political subjectivity.” — Tejas Murugesh ’23
“Going into the tournaments, I was excited at the prospect of going against teams I was well prepared to face. Greenhill, Rock Hill, Saginaw, Coppell etc are all teams in the DFW area, so it was good to compete to see who would come out on top in the local arena.” ~~ Peter Loh ’24
“It’s been a very educational season with new experiences and people and a topic that I personally enjoy debating about” — Henry Banse ’26
Best of luck to Jesuit debate for another successful and rewarding semester!
Stay tuned to The Roundup for more exciting debate news!
