Health & Fitness
Solon Speech and Debate Team clinches 6th place finish at the state tournament
The Solon Speech and Debate team sends 29 members to States, wins 6th place overall and places top 10 for the first time.
On March 1-3, 29 members of the Solon Speech and Debate team converged at Jackson High School to tackle the biggest challenge of the season yet: States. Hungry for victory, these students strove to break into the top 10 teams in the entire state of Ohio and placed 6th for the first time in Solon history out of 65 total teams. Many events had more than 50 students competing and the team members competed in four arduous preliminary rounds, hoping to break into the top 24 speakers in the state in the quarter final round, then breaking into the top 12 speakers in the state in the semifinal round, and finally, the top six or seven speakers in Ohio in each of their respective events.
Below are the students who earned points by breaking into the top-tier rounds for Solon and contributing to the overall team score.
Quarter Finalists:
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United States Extemporaneous Speaking | Tiffany Li
International Extemporaneous Speaking | Eric Wang, Ojas Sathe
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Oratorical Intepretation | Peter Shi
Dramatic Interpretation | London Christian, Nisha Malhotra, and Simone Anderson
Duo Interpretation | Zach Schwartz & Vibhu Krishna
Semifinalists:
Original Oratory | Liz Eder
Oratorical Interpretation | Jocelyn Liao
Congressional Debate | William Qu
Congressional Debate Finalist (top 14) | Crystal Kong
Finalists (A record number: three!):
Oratorical Interpretation | 4th place | Oliver Chen
Oliver Chen, a four-year state qualifier, emerged victorious out of 46 other competitors.
Dramatic Intepretation | 4th place | Kathy Zhang
Kathy Zhang, a three-year state qualifier, emerged victorious out of 56 other competitors.
Congressional Debate | 6th place | Best Presiding Officer | John Zeng
John Zeng, a three-time state competitor, beat over 150 competitors to reach the final chamber of Congressional Debate. He then was elected Best Presiding Officer and will appear in the next State booklet of champions for his accomplishments.
The Speech and Debate team would like to thank their coaches Jennifer Moore and Dan Ceci for their encouragement, tough love and intensive coaching throughout the whole season. Special recognition also goes to the officers (Tiffany Li (President), William Qu (Vice President), Liz Eder (Secretary), Kathy Zhang (Public Relations), and Farah Rahman (Fundraising Chair)) who have worked extremely hard with the team members and who have truly been honored through the achievements of the team as a whole!
This victory was the crowning achievement of the year and a great end to the in-state season for the Solon Speech and Debate team. Although the team broke many records this year, qualifying 29 members to States, 11 members to Nationals, having three state finalists, and winning 6th place at States, the bar is now set even higher for the upcoming 2012-2013 season to continue Solon’s reign as district champions as well as the eventual goal of winning States. Congratulations to all team members who competed! Without a doubt, the 2011-2012 Speech and Debate season was an immensely successful year.