Carson High debate team earns success at latest competition, 11 advance to elimination rounds
Carson High School debate competed in the 2nd season tournament at Spanish Springs last weekend. The tournament included 15 schools and 183 competitors.
The Carson Squad had another strong showing and advanced members into the final round in every speech event Friday and half of the debate events Saturday. Both experienced and new members of the team picked up winning ballots and qualified for elimination rounds.
Two team highlights include Captain Viviana Castro placing in the top 3 in three different categories at this competition and partners Chelsea Empeno and Kaden Sa who competed in duo interpretation together for the first time and beat out last year’s national qualifiers to win the event.
Here is a breakdown of Carson High finalists:
Novice Storytelling
- 6th Noelani Ochoa performing selections from Hamilton by Lin-Manuel Miranda
Novice Informative
- 6th Pebble Wiggins, topic: The Guillotine
Senior Informative
- 6th McKenzie Merrell, topic: Oppenheimer and Nuclear Weapons
- 5th Nasia Perkins, topic: Morbid Curiosity
Senior Extemporaneous
- 6th Kyle Allen
- 2nd Viviana Castro
Novice Dramatic Interpretation
- 6th Claire Dillon performing With the Fire on High by Elizabeth Acevedo
Senior Dramatic Interpretation
- 4th Summer McGill performing scenes from Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson
- 1st Emily Tran performing Room by Emma Donoghue
Senior Duo Interpretation
- 1st Chelsea Empeno & Kaden Sa performing The Second Bakery Attack by Haruki Murakami
Novice Public Forum
- Thomas Lance, 7th place speaker points
Novice Lincoln Douglas Debate
- Emily Tran, 5th place speaker points
- Alexis Ropp, 2nd place speaker points, 2nd overall
Senior Lincoln Douglas Debate
- Viviana Castro, 1st place speaker points, 3rd overall
The team will be in action at the BOOnanza on Thursday. The next tournament is Nov. 17-18 at Reed High School. Members of the team are also preparing for the American Legion Oratorical Contest as well as the Poetry Out Loud competition.