SSFS Speech and Debate Team Advance to Regional Championships!

WACFL Speech and Debate Regular Season
The SSFS Speech and Debate Team, competing in eight different events, completed the 5 regular season tournament cycle on February 3. Twenty-one students qualified in 22 events for the Maryland/DC Speech Championships on February 24 and Debate Championships on March 9/10. Top 5 finishers at Metros receive bids to the National Championships over Memorial Day Weekend in Chicago.

Highlights from the regular season include the following medalists (top 6):

• Alexios Eleftheriou & Daryan Tchoubineh/top SSFS Debate Pair (2nd place in Public Forum Debate)
• Taye Bradford (1st place Dramatic Performance and 2nd place in Original Oratory)
• Matthew Burd (2nd place in Original Oratory)
• Sam Deichman-Caswell (3rd place in Extemporaneous Speaking)
• Eva Derryberry (4th place in Original Oratory)
• Greta Garrettson-Taylor (6th place in Dramatic Performance)
• Chloe Jonasdottir (4th place in Impromptu Speaking)
• Julia Roach (4th place in Original Oratory)
• Maxine Ross (6th place in Declamation)
• Annelise Tejpar (1st place in Oral Interpretation)
• Kairava Buchwald and Suutumee Negash (1st place in Duo Interpretation)
• Grace Christerson and Chloe Jonasdottir (3rd place in Duo Interpretation)

Top 9 Placement/Metro Championship Qualifiers: Audrey Deane-Gonzalez (DP), Quin Ely (Extemp), Cecilia Gang (OI), Henry Goldblatt (Dec), Janaan as Siddiqui (OO), Julia May (DP), Phoebe Yonkos (OI) and Diego Zein (OO & DP).

Other Top Public Forum Debate Results: Jonah DeGannes (3 wins), Clara Frank (4 wins), Max Koprivica (5 wins), Jason Malik (4 wins), Elena Powell (3 wins), Catherine Risen (5 wins), and Dylan Rose (5 wins).

Ridge Invitational (Ridge, New Jersey)
Twelve Speech Team students competed at this Gold Level tournament on January 26/27. After intense morning rounds against Nationally ranked students from Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, four Springers broke into the semi-finals. Congratulations to medalists Taye Bradford (Original Oratory), Benji Cherukuri (Dramatic Performance), Sam Deichman-Caswell (Extemporaneous), and Maxine Ross (Declamation). A big shoutout to Taye who made the finals and finished in 5th place (and received a bid to the Tournament of Champions in April).

Yale Invitational & George Mason Patriot Games Invitational
Our top Public Forum Debate team of Alexios & Daryan were Octofinalists at Yale in September and Quarterfinalists at George Mason in December. They are competing at the Harvard Invitational over President’s Day Weekend, Metro Finals in Debate (DC/MD Championships) in March, and the Tournament of Champions in Lexington, Kentucky in April. They are one of the top three ranked debate teams in the DC/MD/VA league.

The Speech Team would like to extend a big thank you to Christian Ely, Donté Tates, and Barbara von Salis for assistant coaching in Speech; to Mike Risen (SSFS parent) for head coaching in Public Forum Debate; and Annie Grout (SSFS parent) for chaperoning at the Ridge Invitational.