ASU 2023 Results
The team started semester two strong with an in-person national circuit tournament: Arizona State University HDSHC Invitational in Tempe, Arizona from 1/5–1/8! We shared a bus with Santa Fe Prep and got closer with our fellow competitors in the New Mexico circuit while engaging in other team bonding experience as well. Most of the students (8 out of the 13 total) who attended were brand new to national circuit competition and travel, so it was a fantastic learning opportunity for most to get acquainted with the norms of the circuit and observe rounds. In spite of that, we still had some exciting competitive successes.
Congratulations to the following for their specific achievements:
4th place Finalist in Impromptu Speaking — Becca Faber
Semi-Finalist in Program Oral Interp (Top 14) — Thomas Wray
Semi-Finalist in Informative Speaking (Top 14) — Becca Faber
Quarter-Finalist in Informative Speaking (Top 28) — Ben Raihane
However, the rest of the team also recognized the efforts of several of our community members:
Ashna & Syd were recognized for seeing the tournament through to the end despite it being their first national circuit policy tournament
Ben was recognized for inspiring kindness and modeling excellent mindset around not breaking for other students
Thomas was recognized out for his excellent preparation and work over winter break, his inspirational pep talks, and his overall supportive nature
Darin was recognized for giving some “fire rebuttals”, especially when hitting arguments he wasn’t as familiar with, and for modeling a great growth mindset
Coach Jason was recognized for helping explain a lot of complicated LD philosophy and topics to our novice competitors.
As a whole, half of our speech entries broke to elimination rounds, which is a huge accomplishment given the size of this tournament and the relative newness of our attendees to national circuit competition.
Next up, for national circuit competition, several students will travel to Berkeley, California to compete at the Cal Invitational tournament in February! Stay tuned.
