6,700 high school students competing at the National Speech & Debate Association (NSDA) national tournament in Des Moines, Iowa included 23 students from four high schools in the Brazos Valley.
This was Consolidated High School’s 25th trip to nationals. Coach Brian Alford told WTAW News “This was a great showing at Nationals for such a young team.”
Alford said sophomore Ethan Wang advanced to the Congressional Debate House semifinals, junior Justin Palazzolo broke to the International Extemporaneous quarterfinals, sophomore Rowan Seipp advanced to the quarterfinals of the Congressional Debate House, and junior David Zhang advanced to the octo-finals of Original Spoken Word Poetry.
College Station High School sent three students to their first trip to nationals…Kelly Zeng, Gavin Gutierrez, and Ariadne Pappa. According to coach Heather Strawn, they competed in two events: Big Questions Debate and Extemporaneous Debate. Out of 145 contestants in Big Questions Debate, Ariadne Pappa placed 53rd and Kelly Ding placed 89th (both students had a 3-3 debating record); out of 976 contestants in Extemporaneous Debate, Kelly Ding placed 67th with a 5-2 record, Gavin Gutierrez placed 313rd with a 2-2 record, and Ariadne Pappa placed 675th with a 1-3 record.
Buffalo High School sent four students to their eighth trip to the national tournament. Coach Melonie Menefee told WTAW News that senior Nicollette Arabie, a four time national qualifier, reached the semifinals in Congressional House Debate and Kaylen Sanchez advanced to elimination rounds in Impromptu Speaking.
Centerville High School qualified five for their third trip to nationals. WTAW News has requested Centerville HS results.
Rosters of Brazos Valley high schools competing at the national speech and debate tournament are screen shots from the National Speech & Debate Association website:
