Carson High debaters break own record, have best season in decades
Submitted by Jeff Munson on Mon, 02/27/2023 - 1:33pm
Carson High Debate wrapped up its regular season over the weekend at Spanish Springs High School where the team completed its best season in decades. The final regular season tournament saw 14 schools and 203 competitors, with 11 CHS debaters advancing into final rounds over the two-day event.
In Novice Impromptu Peter Woodbury placed 5th, developing a series of five minute speeches off the top of his head in two minutes. In Novice Original Oratory Saule Astronomo placed 6th, discussing the dangers of technological innovations while teammates Nasia Perkins and Chelsea Empeno claimed 1st and 2nd.
Nasia spoke about the invisible hierarchy in the United States and Chelsea spoke about the pressures to succeed. In Novice Humorous Interpretation Robert Sainz finished in 1st place with his selection from Toy Story.
In Program Oral Interpretation Abby Cook, Penelope Truell, Viviana Castro and Emily Tran all advanced in finals. (Abby placed 6th with a composition inspired by her experiences of being slut shamed by judges and coaches in debate) Penelope finished 4th with her program focusing on drug addiction; Viviana finished 3rd discussing body shaming, and Emily secured 1st place by examining racism against Vietnamese immigrants.
In Lincoln Douglas debate speaker points, Viviana Castro finished 10th, Emily Tran took 6th, Parker Schmid placed 4th and Abby Cook finished 3rd. Viviana finished 3rd overall debating the topic: Justice requires open borders for human migration. Public Forum, the 2 vs 2 partner debate where Kyle Allen finished 8th in speaker points and his partner McKenzie Merrell finished 6th.
The pair went undefeated in competition, placing first after the final round. In Policy Debate, where students pair off and develop a cohesive plan for US Foreign Policy; Carson fielded a record 9 teams in novice competition debating the topic: The United States federal government should substantially increase its security cooperation with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in one or more of the following areas: artificial intelligence, biotechnology, cybersecurity.
Carson retained all of the top ten speaker spots except 5th. Top speakers include: Ka’Lea Labaya (10th), Peter Woodbury (Tie-9th), Lillian Turner (Tie-9th), Jayden Chicas (8th), Kaden Sa (7th), Nicholas Torres (Tie-6th), Jazelyn Avila (Tie-6th), Jose Salinas (4th), Erick Martinez (3rd), Nasia Perkins (2nd), and Saule Astronomo finishing 1st. Three Carson teams advanced past prelims with partners Jose Salinas/Nic Torres and Maxwell Gold/Kaden Sa placing 3rd overall. Nasia Perkins and Abby Luis went undefeated and claimed 1st place overall, defeating Elko in the final round.
This tournament also signaled the regular season closing, with the cumulative sweepstake bowls. Bowls are awarded as floating trophies annually to the schools in the Northern Nevada Forensics League whose teams have placed competitors in the top three seeded spots during final rounds throughout the year.
Carson, in a record breaking year, doubled it’s previous total and brought 10 bowls home in the following events: 3rd in United States Extemporaneous speaking, 3rd in Big Question debate, 3rd in Policy debate, 2nd in Humorous Interp, 2nd in Dramatic Interp, 2nd in Informative speaking. 2nd in Original Oratory, 1st place in Program Oral interpretation; with the final two bowls being 2nd place Speech event Sweepstakes, and 3rd place in Grand Sweepstakes.
The last time Carson City finished 3rd overall in the league was in 1983. Eyes ever on the prize, Carson Debate sets their sights on the national qualifier District competition in March 2023, hoping to secure more than a couple National Qualifiers for the NSDA National Competition in June, which will be held in Phoenix, Arizona.
If you are interested in coming to judge or checking out the program, please send an email to Head Coach Patrick Mobley at: pmobley@carson.k12.nv.us.
