Quarterfinalists, 2nd Speaker at The Glenbrooks

Post date: Dec 15, 2011 3:36:40 PM

The weekend before Thanksgiving, the War Eagles traveled to the North Shore suburbs of Chicago for the 18th edition of the Glenbrooks, the largest speech and debate tournament hosted by a high school in the United States. With a field of 191 teams from more than 25 states, the Glenbrooks is the final "major" of the first semester and an excellent benchmark for assessing one's progress during the opening months of the season.Seniors Rahim Shakoor and Jason Sigalos compiled a 6-1 preliminary round record, notching victories over teams from Oak Park-River Forest (IL), Lowell (CA), Wheeler (GA), New Trier (IL), Henry W. Grady (GA), and University of Chicago Lab (IL). Advancing to the elimination rounds as the fifth seed, Woodward defeated Barstow (MO) in the sextodecimofinals and St. Mark's (TX) in the octafinals before bowing out in the quarterfinals to our friends and rivals from Homewood-Flossmoor (IL). The "elite eight" appearance was Woodward's third in the last four years and sixth overall. Individually, Jason earned the tournament's second speaker award—the highest award ever earned by a War Eagle at the Glenbrooks (the previous best was Bobo Bose-Kolanu's sixth speaker award in 2006).Woodward's other two teams also fared well. Senior Nasir Nanjee and junior Karthik Srinivasan finished the preliminary rounds with a 5-2 record after defeating teams from Highland Park (MN), Dexter (MI), Bishop Guertin (NH), James Logan (CA), and Bellarmine (CA). Unfortunately, the duo narrowly missed the elimination rounds based on speaker points. Nonetheless, this was their best performance of the year and a positive sign for an up-and-coming team. Juniors Alex Duner and Zoi Rosado notched strong wins of their own against Northside College Prep (IL) and Mukwonago (WI).