Speech and Debate Concludes District Qualifiers

This past weekend concluded the Magnolia Forensic League's district qualifying tournaments for the National Speech and Debate Association's National Tournament to be held in mid-June in Phoenix, Arizona. The district debate tournament had been held at the end of February, where the Saints ended up in a tie for 3rd place with Oak Grove (14 points) and behind Madison Central (16) and Oxford (16), qualifying the Policy Debate Team of seniors Joy Dhar and Patten Lane for Nationals. The Congress tournament was held at the beginning of March, with senior Ryder Hebert and sophomore Pegah Vasighi-Ansarifar punching their tickets to Phoenix in the House. Competing for the Saints at the Speech tournament were seniors Ryder Hebert, Kara Pickett, and Nehemiah Thompson; juniors Lauryn Chambers, Alex Foster, Hannah Moore, Jasleen Rekhi, and Joshua Thorne; sophomore Pegah Vasighi-Ansarifar; and freshman Arian Adams.

After three rounds of competition in the various eight events, thirteen of the fifteen entries from St. Andrew's qualified for elimination round competition, with eleven of those entries making the final round. St. Andrew's ended with four qualifying results, with wins for Hebert (Informative Speaking), Pickett (Original Oratory), and Thompson (Program Oral Interpretation) and a second place finish for the team of Chambers and Pickett (Duo Interpretation). That, in addition to other finals results, gave St. Andrew's the win for the Speech tournament with 25 points, ahead of Madison Central (22) and Petal (21). The combined results for the Speech and Debate portions of the qualifiers were used to determine the Overall District Sweepstakes Championship, where St. Andrew's 39 was one better than Madison Central and ten better than third-place Oak Grove. This victory represents St. Andrew's second time winning the Speech Sweepstakes (2019) and seventh time winning the Overall District Sweepstakes (1999, 2012, 2014, 2016, 2017, 2019). With the addition of senior Preston Daily as a member of the district's team in World Schools Debate, this gives St. Andrew's eight qualifiers for NSDA Nationals, which will be the largest contingent from the Magnolia State.
 
The Saints take the next two weekends off before competing in the MHSAA State Congress Championship on April 21-22 and the MHSAA State Speech and Debate Championship on April 28-29.
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