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.

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).

LO traveled down to Eugene for the U of O’s annual debate tournament. Although the sweepstakes calculation methods (for overall awards) did not include debate teams in finals, LOHS took 5th overall in debate and 4th overall in the tournament. This was thanks to:

Debate
Second Varsity Parliamentary – Ammas Tanveer and Max Groznik (1st seed)
Semifinalists Varsity Policy – Daniel Hong and Andrew Samuelson (2nd seed)
Semifinalists Varsity Parliamentary – Robert Xu and Chris Beltrone (2nd seed)
Quarterfinalists Varsity Parliamentary – Shannon Fender and Joel Kwartler (4th seed)
Semifinalists Junior Public Forum – Marcus Avery and Sarah Kwartler (7th seed)

Individual Events
First Varsity After Dinner Speaking – Joel Kwartler
First Varsity Dual Interpretation – Joel Kwartler and Hannah Lewman
Third Varsity Extemporaneous – Max Groznik
Third Varsity Impromptu – Sarah Kwartler
Fourth Varsity Humorous Interpretation – Joel Kwartler
Seventh Varsity Humorous Interpretation – Sarah Kwartler

Speaking Awards
First Varsity Parliamentary – Ammas Tanveer
Second Varsity Parliamentary – Max Groznik
Third Varsity Parliamentary – Shannon Fender
Third Varsity Policy – Andrew Samuelson
Eighth Varsity Policy – Daniel Hong
Tenth Varsity Policy – Sanders Li
Fourth Junior Public Forum – Sarah Kwartler

Of particular note, LO had 3 of the top 8 parli teams and the top 3 parli speakers.

LOHS took 11 people down to Stanford for their annual tournament.

Out of 180 parliamentary debate teams competing, LOHS’ Robert Xu and Chris Beltrone finished as Octafinalists, while Shannon Fender and Joel Kwartler finished as Double-Octafinalists.