Strong Showings at Milton, 1st & 2nd Year State

In late January and early February, Woodward students earned many awards at the Milton Eagle Classic and the Georgia Forensic Coaches Association First and Second Year State Championships. At Milton, the War Eagles cleared one team in each of the three policy debate divisions. In Varsity, Meera Gorjala ’15 and Sahil Patel ’15 reached the quarterfinals after compiling a 4-1 record in the preliminary rounds. Sahil also earned the fifth speaker award. In Junior Varsity, Crawford Kennedy ’17 and Arjun Srinivasan ’18 also finished as quarterfinalists after finishing the preliminary rounds as the tournament’s top seed with an undefeated record. Crawford (2nd), Arjun (7th), Rishika Pandey ’17 (10th), Max Abramson ’17 (14th), and Ali Abdullah ’17 (16th) earned individual speaker awards. The teams of Rishika and Alex Dulisse ’17 and Ali and Max also finished with winning (3-2) records but narrowly missed the elimination rounds. In Novice, Daniel Hamm ’17 and Tripp Haskins ’17 finished as co-champions after wins in the quarterfinals and semifinals over teams from Paideia. Tripp was also recognized with the third speaker award. 

The team's young debaters were back in action a few weeks later at First and Second Year State. Hosted this year by Lassiter High School in Marietta, this two-day event is one of the most competitive in the State.

In the Second Year division, Woodward cleared two teams to the elimination rounds: Liliana Burgess ’16 and Roshni Kailar ’16 and Nikhil Mardhekar ’15 and Utkarsh Pandey ’15. Nikhil and Utkarsh bowed out in the octafinals but Liliana and Roshni made it all the way to the semifinals before being defeated on a close 2-1 decision by Westminster. Myles Powell ’16 (3rd), Liliana (5th), and Roshni (9th) earned individual speaker awards. 

In the First Year division, five Woodward teams finished the preliminary rounds with winning (3-2 or better) records. Unfortunately, three missed reaching the elimination rounds based on speaker points: Arjun Srinivasan ’18 and Gibran Essa ’17, Alex Dulisse ’17 and Rishika Pandey ’17, and Ethan Cheng ’17 and Tripp Haskins ’17. Crawford Kennedy ’17 and Aly Shakoor ’17 were defeated in the octafinals and Ali Abdullah ’17 and Max Abramson ’17 were bested in the quarterfinals. Aly (6th), Max (9th), Crawford (12th), and Ali (13th) also took home speaker awards. 

Woodward joined Alpharetta, Pace, and Westminster as one of only four schools to reach the quarterfinals in both divisions.