Public Forum Debaters Make A Statement in Santa Clara

O’Dowd Debate’s Public Forum debaters Lola Deibert ’21 and Evian Jiang ’20 turned in a superb performance in advancing to the quarterfinal round at last weekend’s Santa Clara University Spring Invitational. The recently paired duo competed in an exceptionally strong 50-team varsity field and alternated between affirmative and negative each round on the March Public Forum topic “The United States should promote the development of market-rate housing in urban neighborhoods.”

Lola and Evian defeated Saratoga, Leland, Mountain View, and Lynbrook high schools on their way to a 4-1 prelim record and the tournament’s #6 seed. In the 16-team single-elimination rounds, Lola and Evian bested Amador Valley High School on a 3-0 ballot in the octafinal round before dropping on a 2-1 split ballot to Lynbrook High School in quarters. Evian was ranked the tournament’s #12 individual debater in a field of 100, while Lola was ranked #18.

Meade Jacobsen ’20 and Milo Kuiper Rauch ’20 also put in a strong performance in the Public Forum Debate. The pair, debating together only for the second time in the Public Forum format, put together a 3-2 winning record, just missing the cut to elimination rounds.

In Parliamentary Debate, Lucy Barretto ’21 and Connor Whitehill ’20, debating together for the first time and competing in a 100-team field, wrapped up their prelim round run with a 3-2 record and the #22 seed, but dropped in the double-octafinal round to Campolindo High School. In the novice Parliamentary Debate division, Sylvie Richards ’22 and Vashe Sundar ’21 turned in a terrific performance in compiling a 4-1 prelim round record in a 50-team field and securing the #4 seed. Sylvie and Vashe defeated Irvington High School in the octafinal round before dropping to a second Irvington team in quarters. Vashe was the division’s #8 ranked individual debater in a field of 100 with Sylvie ending the tournament ranked #10.