Debate team co-captain Cameron Cohen ’16 won his first bid toward qualifying for the Tournament of Champions, the nation’s premier debate competition.

The Greenhill Fall Classic in Dallas Sept. 20-22 was the first major national tournament of the year and included some of the nation’s top debaters.

Both co-captains, Cohen and Nick Steele ’16, advanced to the elimination rounds at the tournament. Steele reached the round of 32, and Cohen, who was named as 10th place speaker, reached the round of 16.

The debate team also competed Sept. 27-28 at California State University, Long Beach. Out of the 43 student participants, 38 won at least three debates and seven broke into the elimination rounds. Ten of those students had records of 4-2, and 21 went 3-3.

Novices Nick Platt ’19, Will Evans ’19 and Indu Pandey ’18, JV debater Aidan Lusckinski ’17 and varsity debaters Ravi Durairaj ’17 and Jesse Nadel ’17 qualified for the elimination rounds.

Liz Yount ’17 was awarded a fifth place speaker award in the novice division, Ravi Durairaj ’17 won the fifth place speaker award in the varsity division and Jesse Nadel ’17 received the sixth place speaker award, also in the varsity division.

“It was so great to see so many of my fellow debaters compete at this tournament,” said Allison Gorokhovsky ’17, who was one of the debaters who went 4-2 at CSULB. “We had some who have now done debate for a few years, and for others, this was their first tournament. I personally began debating at this tournament a year ago, so it was really nice to come back and go 4-2 in the varsity division. But most importantly, I think we had a great time as a team.”

Upcoming tournaments include matches at Presentation High School in San Jose, St. Marks School in Dallas, Bronx High School of Science in New York, The Meadows School in Las Vegas, Narbonne High School in Torrance and Damien High School in La Vern.