Debaters Take National Stage

Windward’s top debate students, Meiyi Wang ‘23 and Luke Gialanella ‘23 compete in the National Speech & Debate Tournament in Louisville, KY

The Windward Debate squad made their first trip out to the National Speech & Debate Tournament in Louisville, KY, which took place June 12-17. Amongst hordes of other bleary-eyed debaters ironing out the research in their case files and speech competitors fine tuning their hand gestures, Luke and Meiyi practiced their speeches, grabbed a few winks of nervous sleep, and headed into their first rounds.

Both students had a really solid day one, with Luke in the top 30 competitors and even a 1st Place finish for one of his rounds and Meiyi in just the 3rd rank amongst some of the toughest competitors in the country. The students hit some tough rounds on day two and didn't end up making it into the top 60, but their hard work and determination was evident through the entire tournament.

The team spent their last few days watching the final competitors live and ranking the competitors in Dramatic Interpretation and International Extemporaneous Speaking against the official panel of judges. Together, they rigorously analyzed the final rounds and debated over who they thought deserved the crown. Together, they will take their notes back to Windward to take another crack at it next year for the National Speech & Debate tournament in Phoenix!

A huge thank you to Windward’s Debate coaches, Will Vincent and Hatim Malek, who supported Luke and Meiyi in reaching the biggest Debate stage in America.