Greenhill Debate Team Captures TFA State Championships

The Greenhill Debate Team traveled to Houston over Spring Break to participate in the 2019 Texas Forensic Association (TFA) State Tournament, which is one of the largest State Speech & Debate Tournaments in the country with 209 schools all vying for the state title.This year, Greenhill recorded its best overall performance in school history as the team won fourth-place overall sweepstakes at the tournament, which is the highest team sweepstakes award in shool history. In addition, the team had 22 students competing at the state tournament, and each one advanced to the elimination rounds in their respective divisions, which was another first in school history. Greenhill competed in three difference Debate events and held the top-seed in each event after the preliminary rounds.In Lincoln Douglas Debate, senior Anna Myers captured the 2019 state championship and was also selected as the Top Individual Speaker in the division. Seniors Mihir Rai and Brian Zhou both reached the semifinals while junior Anais Zhang earned a berth in the double octofinals round. Greenhill had the top-three seeds (all undefeated) out of 180 competitors after the preliminary rounds.In Policy Debate, the senior team of Samar Ahmad and Chris Eckert were crowned state champions as they were undefeated in both the preliminary and elimination rounds. Eckert was honored with second-place Individual Speaker Award honors in the division. Seniors Sam Charnes, Joshua Kwon, Timothy Wegener along with juniors Sophia Hurst, Nikhil Ratham, and Alex Witheiler all earned a berth in the octofinals. Seniors Ethan Rothstein and Shaurya Tathgir both earned a berth in the double octofinals round.In the inaugural year of the World Schools Debate division, the freshmen team of Caroline Greenstone, Jothi Gupta, Cameron Kettles, and Aimee Stachowiak were the top-seed after the preliminary rounds and finished third overall. In addition, the team of senior Christine Wu, junior Nichole Stachowiak, and freshmen Ashley Shan earned a berth in the quarterfinals.Sophomore Joshua Timmons earned a berth in the quarterfinals in the Program Oral Interpretation event.