NYSDCA—The New York State Debate Coaches Association congratulates the 2011 New York State Champions and all those who won awards and qualified to compete at the State Championship Tournament.

This year’s tournament was held at Brooklyn Technical High School. Full results are available online at Tabroom.com.

The Bronx High School of Science was the overall school champion in high school debate. Placing second was Scarsdale High School. Placing third was the Bronx School for Law, Government, and Justice. Edgemont High School was the winner of the Small School Championship; the Institute for Collaborative Education was the overall middle school champion.

Jim Menick, director of debate at Hendrick Hudson High School, was inducted into the New York State Debate Coaches Association Hall of Fame.

Harry Feder, director of debate at the Beacon School, won the Michael Bacon Service Award.

The tournament featured full competition in Lincoln-Douglas Debate, Policy Debate, and Public Forum Debate, as well as a one-day event in Congressional Debate.

Berkeley Carroll School’s Dylan Scher is the New York State Champion in Lincoln-Douglas Debate. He defeated Hunter College High School’s Diana Li on a 2-1 decision in the final round. (Diana won the division’s top speaker award.) The semifinalists were Geoffrey Kristof of Scarsdale High School and Zack Struver of Hendrick Hudson High School.

Byram Hills High School’s Josh Altman was the State Champion in the junior varsity Lincoln-Douglas Debate division; Scarsdale’s Sam Natbony was runner-up. Bronx Science’s Albert Han placed third.

Harrison High School’s Sarah Rossman was the State Champion in novice Lincoln-Douglas Debate, having defeated the Bronx High School of Science’s Zeke Rosenberg on a 2-1 decision. Scarsdale’s Charlie Blatt and Noah Thaler were semifinalists. Sarah was also the winner of the top speaker award.

Two teams from Edgemont High School “closed out” the final round of Policy Debate and were declared co-champions. The team of Nikhil Jayawickrama and Akshay Kini and the team of Isaac Marshall and Helen Xu thus share the state title. The semifinalists were the Bronx High School of Science’s Daniel Fabrizio and Joyce Tang and the Beacon School’s Eleanor Buse and Evelyn Buse. Nikhil won the top speaker award.

In junior varsity Policy Debate, Bronx School for Law, Government, and Justice’s Geordano Liriano and Betty Mahmud were State Champions; Lakeland High School’s Mihir Pradkar and Priten Shah were runners-up. Beacon’s Carol Cuello and Isabel Reade and Edgemont’s Tientso Ning and Tasha Jhangiani were semifinalists. Tientso was also top speaker.

The final debates for Novice Policy Debate and Middle School Policy Debate will take place shortly. The final round of Novice Policy Debate will feature debaters Dale Li and Lucy Shen from the Bronx High School of Science and debaters Aassta Gandi and Allen Xu from Edgemont High School; the final round of Middle School Policy Debate will feature the team of Petergaye Laine and Stephanie Nyame from the Bronx School for Law, Government, and Justice, and the team of Emily Conley and Charlotte Ehrhardt from the Institute for Collaborative Education. Allen was top speaker in novice Policy Debate; Petergaye was top speaker in Middle School Debate.

In Public Forum Debate, the Bronx High School of Science’s Dasha Fayvinova and Jeremy Perlman were the State Champions, while teammates Thomas Lloyd and Katie Wong placed second. Jeremy won the top speaker award. In the junior varsity division, Bronx Science also took the top two awards. The team of Towsif Ahasan and Jeremy Andreades were State Champions; the team of Daniel Messner and Liam Moore placed second. Horace Mann School’s Alex Posner was top speaker.

Berkeley Carroll School’s August Rosenthal won Congressional Debate; Bronx Science’s Sam Turer placed second.

This article was posted on Sunday, April 3rd, 2011.