2014 Team Banquet

ChampionshipBannerInCafeteriaThe LOHS debate team finished a strong year with the annual year-end banquet. The team members also gave a farewell (and a senior gift) to 10 outgoing seniors. They were:

  • Alex Avery, who will be attending Georgia Tech University
  • Chris Beltrone, on to Columbia University
  • Amy Chen, on to Stanford University
  • Bill Feng, on to Washington University in St. Louis
  • Shannon Fender, on to University of Oregon Clark Honors College
  • Daniel Hong, on to Vanderbilt University
  • Joel Kwartler, on to Harvard University
  • Hannah Lewman, on to University of Oregon Clark Honors College
  • Andrew Samuelson, on to Virginia Polytechnic Institute
  • Robert Xu, on to University of California, Berkeley

Additionally, the team members voted on recognition awards, which ended up as follows:

Most Improved – Shannon Fender
Most Improved Freshman – Sarah Kwartler
Most Outstanding Speaker – Ammas Tanveer
Speech Leadership – Hannah Lewman
Most Dedicated – Joel Kwartler
Most Inspirational – Andrew Samuelson

LOHS WINS STATE! (OSAA 2014 State Championships Results)

STATE CHAMPIONS!The Speech and Debate team won the 6A division (largest school size) state title with 92 sweepstakes points! (For comparison, second place had 63 points and third place had 57 points.)

Contributing to this tremendous performance were:

Debate
First place in Policy Debate – Andrew Samuelson and Daniel Hong (3rd seed)
Third place in Parliamentary Debate – Ammas Tanveer and Max Groznik (6th seed)
Quarterfinalists in Parliamentary Debate – Robert Xu and Chris Beltrone (1st seed)
Quarterfinalists in Parliamentary Debate – Joel Kwartler and Zohar Hoter (7th seed)

Individual Events
First place in Prose – Hannah Lewman
Second place in After Dinner Speech – Joel Kwartler
Second Place in Impromptu – Chris Beltrone
Third Place in LIBIELL – Samarthan KC
Third Place in Poetry – Meghana Mysore
Finalist in Extemporaneous – Ammas Tanveer
Finalist in Oratory – Zohar Hoter
Finalist in Humorous Interpretation – Sarah Kwartler
Finalist in Impromptu – Ammas Tanveer
Semifinalist in Poetry – Hannah Lewman
Semifinalist in Radio – Bill Feng

Congress
Semifinalist/Super Congress – Shannon Fender
Semifinalist/Super Congress – Sanders Li

4-Year Qualifying Awards
(for those that qualified to State every single year)
Chris Beltrone
Joel Kwartler
Andrew Samuelson

Most notable, LO had 2 individual state champions: Hong/Samuelson in Policy Debate and Hannah Lewman in Prose. Additionally, Joel Kwartler became one of only two people in the history of the OSAA to ever make ADS finals four consecutive years (the entire final round can be caught here, with Joel’s speech starting at 45:00).

Oh, one might also note: this is the first official speech and debate state championship in the history of Lake Oswego High School.

Nat Quals Congress Results 2014

Last Saturday, Andrew Samuelson also qualified to Nationals. He qualified in Congressional Debate at the Congress qualifying tournament held at Sprague High School. LO will now be taking four people to nationals! (Congress was the last chance for anyone to qualify to nationals, and its qualifying tournament takes place usually around a month after Nat Quals).

National Qualifier Districts 2014 Results

(All of the Northern Oregon National Qualifiers)

(All of the Northern Oregon National Qualifiers; click for larger image)

LO sent 14 people to Nat Quals to compete in the various events (note: poetry, prose, ADS, parli, and impromptu are not national events). At the conclusion of the 3-day tournament, LO had qualified 3 people to nationals! They are:

Qualifying to Nationals:

  • First in Lincoln-Douglas – Joel Kwartler
  • Second in Humorous Interpretation – Hannah Lewman
  • Second in Domestic Extemporaneous Speaking – Ammas Tanveer

Additionally, Hannah Lewman and Joel Kwartler took 3rd/Alternates in Duo interp.

The “district” for Nationals includes every school in North Oregon, and is thus much more competitive than the OSAA district for the state qualifying tournament. Of particular note: after 5 prelim rounds, Ammas was leading everyone in DX, and Joel Kwartler went undefeated in LD and thus byed through the final round.

Nationals will be held on June 15-20, 2014, in Overland Park, Kansas, and are run by the National Speech and Debate Association (previously known as the NFL, or National Forensic League).