By Anna Kate Bailey and Parker Liu
The Betty Gunn Debate Tournament hosted by Mountain Brook High School took place over February 2nd to February 3rd. The competition included Congress, a large variety of Speech events, and both Lincoln-Douglas and Public Forum debate.
Congressional debaters arrived at the school early Friday morning to compete in Congress, an event imitating the legislative process of the House and Senate. Competitors, also referred to as Senators, debated over a series of bills and whether or not the bill should be passed. They debated over bills such as making Groundhog Day a national holiday, setting age limits on the purchase of energy drinks, and the adoption of a new emblem and flag. Vestavia competed in chambers 2 and 3, with several competitors placing top five: Tina Gao (5th), Greta Christiansen (3rd), Hope Johnson (2nd), and Eddy Pang (1st).
Speech competitors arrived in the afternoon. The tournament hosted a large variety of speech events such as Duo Interpretation, Informative Speaking, and Original Oratory. In most speech events, contestants deliver a memorized speech to a panel of judges ranging from humorous speeches to persuasive, mainly depending on the event. However, events such as Impromptu force competitors to deliver speeches on the spot, with very little preparation beforehand.
Vestavia swept through Speech competitions with Lily Xie placing 5th and Ellie Hoar clenching 1st in Dramatic Interpretation. Monsi Parekh and Greta Christiansen performed as an entertaining duo, earning them the first place trophy. Zhuzhu Wang placed 2nd in Extemporaneous Speaking while Annie Hu placed 4th in Humorous Interpretation and Ellie Hoar placed 3rd. Informative Speaking saw three top five placements: Tina Lou (5th), Vivian Lin (4th), and Jessica Ma (3rd). Impromptu had similar results with Tina Lou placing 6th, Vivian Lin placing 2nd, and Zhuzhu Wang grabbing 1st. Mars Malik placed 3rd and Reva Lingala placed 2nd in Original Oratory. Prose had Mars Malik place 4th and Zhuzhu Wang place 1st.
Debate events also began Friday afternoon. The two forms of debate included Lincoln-Douglas (LD) and Public Forum (PF). Lincoln-Douglas consists of a one-on-one format, covering more philosophical topics while Public Forum is a partnered event, with two teams of two competing against each other. The topic for Lincoln-Douglas during the tournament was “Resolved: The United States ought to substantially reduce its military presence in the West Asia-North Africa region” while the topic for Public Forum was “Resolved: The United States federal government should ban single-use plastics.”
Vestavia performed exceptionally well in debate events. Adi Sheelavant reached the semifinals of Novice LD while Veronica Zhang won the event. Novice PF saw a co-champ between teams Vestavia BS (Anna Kate Bailey and Ishaan Singh) and Vestavia LP (Arhaan Lalani and Yash Pillai). Varsity Public Forum saw impressive results too with Vestavia GP (Tina Gao and Rohan Parekh) and Vestavia KR (Evelyn Kutny and Caitlyn Webster-Roberts) reaching quarterfinals. Vestavia LL (Parker Liu and Timothy Li) made the semifinals while Vestavia LP (Armaan Lalani and Edward Pang) took home first place. Alongside placement trophies, the Betty Gunn tournament also gave out speaker awards, awarding the debaters who spoke most clearly and persuasively. The top speakers in Novice LD included Adi Sheelavant (4th), Eric Wang (3rd), and Veronica Zhang (1st). Novice PF speaker awards went to Arhaan Lalani (4th) and Yash Pillai (1st).
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