Cyclone Debate on the trail to Longhorn Country

Six cyclone policy teams hit the trail Thursday to compete in the University of Texas Longhorn Classic. This will be our second year to compete in the tournament, but it is our first year to enter the varsity level. This is the first time many of our debaters will compete on varsity, and the field of competition includes teams from schools all over the country, from California to New Hampshire, from Chicago to Florida. We also have students entered in the novice division.

UT is a quarterfinals Tournament of Champions bid tournament, so varsity teams are competing to win that coveted bid to the most competitive tournament of the year. Students will compete in six preliminary rounds (lasting about 1-1/2 hours each), and then the teams with the best records will advance to "out" rounds. On varsity, this means double octafinals, octafinals, quarters, semis and finals.

If you are interested in checking out some of the arguments our students will be debating, you can browse the national policy case list, which can be searched by school and team name.

Watch for updates on our progress on the Twitter!

MD to PC North

Middle Division debaters should meet at Putnam City North High School no later than 2:30 on Friday afternoon, Nov. 11. Rounds will begin around 3:30. Pick-up time should be around 10:00pm at PC North.

UT Plans

Our next tournament is the UT Longhorn Classic in Austin, TX. We will travel together with Heritage Hall via charter bus, leaving Thursday, Nov. 1 at around 3pm, and returning Sunday, Nov. 4 in the early afternoon. Tournament information is available below under Tournament links. I will post an itinerary on the Drop Box and on the website soon, so stay tuned.

UNT Results

Congrats to the varsity for making it through their first varsity tournament! It was a learning experience for all, and even though we did not break, we got very close. Here are the records and speaks:

Varsity
Defne/Shiva: 3/2, 18th place out of 41 teams
Layne/Olivia: 2/3
Eihab/Haris: 1/4

Varsity Speaks
Olivia: 139.2 (18th speaker)
Layne: 138.8
Defne: 138.6
Eihab: 137.8
Haris: 135.5
Shiva: 134.8

Novices, congrats on making it through your first big out-of-state tournament! It was tough going, for sure, but you all handled yourselves well, and you now have five rounds of experience and judges' critiques from which to learn and develop for the next tournament. Here are the records:

Sidney/Grace: 2/3
Salman/Tsu: 1/4

We have a lot of work to do to get ready for UT, so let's be diligent and make sure we are ready to put our best foot forward in Austin! Check the NetClassroom for assignments and other announcements.