The Bishop O’Dowd parliamentary debate duo of Alden O’Rafferty & Connor Whitehill put in a terrific semifinal run last weekend at the 2019 Stanford Debate Invitational, one of the nation’s largest and most prestigious speech and debate tournaments.
Alden & Connor, competing in a varsity field of 122 teams drawn from around the nation, finished the preliminary rounds with a 5-1 record and received a bye into the tournament’s double-octofinal elimination round. In elims, Alden & Connor defeated the Nueva School in doubles, Menlo-Atherton High School in octos, and Global Prep Academy in the quarterfinal round. Alden & Connor’s run however would end in semis, dropping to Menlo-Atherton after affirming “California should repeal the Costa Hawkins Rental Housing Act.” Alden also finished the tournament individually ranked #8 out of the 244 varsity parliamentary debaters. Alden & Connor are currently ranked #6 in the National Parliamentary Debate League national rankings.
In addition to Alden & Connor, several other O’Dowd teams advanced to elimination rounds. The varsity parliamentary pairing of Meade Jacobsen, ’20 & Milo Kuiper Rauch, ’20 completed prelims with a 4-2 record and defeated Archbishop Mitty in the partial triple-octofinal round before falling to a second Mitty team in doubles. In the JV Parliamentary Debate, two teams advanced to elimination rounds. Debating in a field of 117 teams, Cordelia Kuiper Rauch, ’22 & Will Lecocq, ’22 ended prelims with a 3-2 record but dropped to Claremont High School in double-octos. Kayly Kassab, ’22 & Max Wilcoxson, ’21 tallied a 4-1 record in prelims and dropped Oaks Christian High School in doubles before dropping to Washington High School in octos.
O’Dowd Debate will be seeing its next action in two weeks at the Golden Gate Speech Association state qualifying tournament.