2018-2019 Academic Year

2018-19 UCSD Speech and Debate Season Ends as it Started: With Victory 

The final Speech and Debate Tournament of the 2018-19 season—the PSCFA “Cool-Off” Tournament for Rookies and Novices was held April 27 and 28 at Cerritos College in Norwalk, California. Twenty-two schools— from as far away as Glendale, Arizona–competed in debate competition and speech events over the two days. 

With few novices, and even fewer rookies, UCSD entered a single NPDA debate team, pairing Tyler Jang (novice) with Aidan McKay, a true “rookie”, who had never debated in neither high school nor college. Twelve schools entered NPDA teams. 

But for UCSD, one team was enough. UCSD won the Gold Medal and Jang and McKay topped the list of competing speakers winning first and second place, respectfully. 

In the Extemporaneous Speech event, Shaheryar Ajmal, President of UCSD’s Debate Club, won the Gold Medal, while Tyler Jang was right behind him in Second Place. 

In the Impromptu Speech event, Ajmal placed 3rd, while Jang was among the Finalists. 

UCSD had little chance to take home an overall “Tournament Sweepstakes” award, as the school had only one  entry in IPDA debate, one entry in NPDA debate, and five speakers—each in two speech events. Nevertheless, due to the outstanding performances cited above, UCSD won the “4-Year Schools Tournament Sweepstakes” award among the five 4-year competing schools. 

UCSD’s head coach summarized, “Our first full season as an organized, school-sponsored Speech and Debate team has amazed everyone, including myself and my colleagues at southern California schools. This team of highly dedicated, talented, and competitive students has represented UCSD spectacularly.” 

The UCSD Speech & Debate Club is sponsored by UCSD’s Rady School of Management.

UCSD Debaters Win 20 Awards at Spring Championships Tournament 

At the Pacific Southwest Collegiate Forensics Association (PSCFA) “Spring Championships” Tournament, held at Palomar College, February 22, 23, and 24, UCSD Speakers and Debaters won the most awards in a single tournament in school history. Competing in three divisions—Novice, Junior, and Senior—20 awards were  earned, including the 3rd Place Sweepstakes Award for Four-Year Universities. 

Competing against 29 other schools, from as far away as Virginia, the largely novice team from UCSD entered IPDA (Individual Debate), NPDA (Team Debate), and Individual Speaking events. Nineteen team members competed in only eight events (about half of the available competitive events at the tourney), yet still earned a Sweepstakes Award for UCSD. 

The first day of the tournament was devoted to IPDA competition. UCSD entered three team members—one each in the three divisions. UCSD was the only school to place 100% of its entries into the Finals and then proceeded to win Third Place in all three divisions. Corliss Lam faced 32 opponents and won the Bronze Medal in the Novice Division; Brockton Lundy faced 27 opponents and won the Bronze Medal in the Junior Division; and Nicholas Graves faced 40 opponents and won the Bronze Medal in the Senior Division. 

The second day of the tournament featured NPDA competition. Seven UCSD teams competed in all three  divisions. The team of Elissa Abbara and Aaron Applegate, facing 17 other teams, won Gold Medals (1st Place) in the Junior Division. Aaron Applegate also earned the 4th Place Speaker Award among all Junior Division  debaters, while Akshat Donti earned the 7th Place Speaker Award. Meanwhile, in the Novice Division, the team of Corliss Lam and Ian Mallory, facing 23 other teams, won Bronze Medals (3rd Place) and 3rd and 4th Place Speaker Awards, respectively. Additionally, in the Senior Division, the 5th Place Speaker Award went to Jasmine Moheb and the 6th Place Speaker Award was earned by the team’s captain, Shaheryar Ajmal. 

The final day of the tournament consisted of a variety of Individual Speaking Events. With only nine competitors, UCSD still managed to place five competitors in the Finals for seven speech events. In the Novice  Division, Akshat Donti, competing against 57 contenders, won the Gold Medal in Impromptu Speech, while teammates Jasmine Moheb and Marlon Minchez were Finalists in the event. Akshat Donti also won the Bronze Medal in Informative Speech. Sanghun Lee was a Finalist in Persuasive Speech. Finally, Jasmine Moheb was a Finalist in the Junior Division for Extemporaneous Speech. 

The UCSD Speech & Debate Team now prepares for Spring Quarter tournaments, which will begin the first week of April. 

The UCSD Speech & Debate Club is sponsored by UCSD’s Rady School of Management.

Two UCSD Debaters Dominate at Cerritos College Tournament 

Nineteen schools with 25 Novice Division debate teams attended the Tabor-Venitsky Speech and Debate Tournament at Cerritos College in Norwalk, California this weekend (February 15 & 16, 2019). 

UCSD entered only one team. But one was quite enough, as the team of Brockton Lundy and Solomon Siu finished as Tournament Champions. Lundy was awarded the First Place Speaking Award, while Siu earned the Second Place Speaking Award. 

In the Novice Division of Informative Speaking, Kaitlyn Willoughby earned Third Place. 

Next week the team will attend the PSCFA “Norene Hokett” Spring Championships Tournament at Palomar College in San Marcos, California. In all three Divisions (Novice, Junior, and Open), multiple UCSD teams will  compete in NPDA debate, while individuals will enter IPDA debate and various speaking events, including Informative, Impromptu, Extemporaneous, and After-Dinner Speaking. At least 26 schools, from as far away as Arizona and Virginia, will compete. 

The UCSD Speech & Debate Club is sponsored by UCSD’s Rady School of Management.

UCSD Debaters Dominate at Southern California’s Prestigious Sunset Cliffs Tournament 

At Point Loma Nazarene University’s “Sunset Cliffs” Speech and Debate tournament (held February 9 & 10  2019), UCSD novice debaters once again stepped up to the higher level of Junior Division. UCSD’s six NPDA debate teams amassed a record of 16 wins in preliminary rounds, which placed three of the teams in the Octofinal Elimination Rounds. Of the 10 schools in Junior Division reaching the Octofinals, only UCSD had three teams reach this level. 

One team, Max Irikura and Tyler Jang, would progress to the semi-finals and place 3rd in the tournament. Tyler Jang was awarded the 10th place speaking award among all debaters in the tournament. 

The other two Octofinalist teams, Elissa Abbara & Aaron Applegate and Kaitlyn Willoughby & Akshat Donti were awarded Finalist medals. 

In the Novice Division of Informative Speaking, Sanghun Lee captured 4th place, while in the same division of Impromptu Speaking, Andrew Olson achieved Finalist status. 

The Sunset Cliffs tournament is one of the oldest and largest in Southern California and this year attracted competition from Utah and Washington schools. 

The UCSD Speech & Debate Club is sponsored by UCSD’s Rady School of Management.

UCSD Debaters Step Up Division Level 

In the third tournament of 2019, six NPDA teams and three speech competitors attended the Jannese Davidson Memorial Tournament at Concordia University in Irvine, California, on  January 26 and 27. The weekend proved to be challenging and fruitful. Competing against over  15 schools—from as far away as Wyoming—the Debate teams entered, for the first time, the Junior Division for six preliminary rounds of debate. (Prior debate competition had been in the  Novice Division.) Despite the higher level of competition, five of the teams finished with 3-3 records, while the team of Maxi Irikura and Nicholas Graves finished 4-2 and entered the  elimination rounds, reaching the Quarterfinal level. 

Meanwhile, in the Novice Division of Informative Speech, Marlon Minchez won First Place and Kashfe Rahman took 3rd Place honors with his speech entitled, “The History of UCSD Speech & Debate.” 

The team’s head coach, Professor Robert Campbell, commented, “This was an experiment the  team wanted. By stepping up to the Junior Division, the teams gained valuable experience. And having one team go all the way to the Quarterfinal Round was impressive.” It was additionally impressive for that elimination-round-qualifying team, since their prior competition last Fall—in Novice Division—was a “baptism by fire” resulting in an 0-4 record. 

Campbell added, “The two speakers, who won and placed highly in Informative Speech competition worked hard to improve. And that hard work and focus on improvement showed in this competition.”

UCSD Debaters Show Strength in First Speech & Debate Tournaments of 2019 

Eleven members of the UCSD Speech & Debate Club traveled to Orange Coast College for two tournaments (called the Close-to-the-Coast tournament) the weekend of January 19 & 20. The team faced entries from 15 schools, coming from as far away as the University of Omaha, Nebraska. Despite being small in number and entering less than half of the available events, UCSD finished 5th overall in the Mt. San Antonio College Tournament and 5th overall in the two tournaments combined. 

Starting with Orange Coast College’s tournament, two NPDA teams looked forward to competing in the Novice  Division. However, due to the limited number of entries, the UCSD teams were elevated to the highest (Open)  division. Still, both teams—Elissa Abbara & Aaron Applegate; Jasmine Moheb & Max Ikura—finished in 3rd place. 

In the Novice Division speaking events, Sabrina Tsai took 1st place in Extemp, while both Marlon Minchez and Kaiwen Tsou earned 3rd place awards in Impromptu. 

The next day, UCSD’s IPDA debaters ruled the tournament. In the Novice Division, Shaheryar Ajmal earned 1st place; Jasmine Moheb, 2nd place; and both Anne Illustrimo and Daisuke Nishioka took home 3rd place awards. 

Again, in the Novice Division, Sabrina Tsai placed 2nd.

UCSD Debaters “Strike Gold” in First Tournaments of 2018-19 Season 

Twenty-one members of the reorganized (and re-invigorated) UCSD Speech & Debate Club traveled to Grossmont College for two tournaments the weekend of November 16, 17 & 18.  The team faced entries from 18 schools, coming from as far away as the University of Arizona and Northwestern University in Illinois. In an unprecedented showing for UCSD Debate, the team brought home 18 team and individual awards. 

The “Ray Dahlin Invitational”, sponsored by Palomar College, was a one-day event, held on  Friday, November 16, on the Grossmont College campus. In the novice division, two UCSD debaters, Juliette Nguyen and Harris McLeod, closed out the championship round. (A “close out” occurs when the two debaters in the final round are from the same school.) 

Despite entering less than half of the available events, UCSD earned 2nd place in the  Tournament Sweepstakes (cumulative results in all speech and debate events) behind only Northwestern University. 

Grossmont College’s “Griffin Invitational” followed on Saturday and Sunday. In the three divisions of novice IPDA Debate, again, UCSD swept all three divisions. Anne Ilustrisimo, Jasmine Moheb, and Juliette Nguyen earned first-place gold medals, while Shaheryar Ajmal took home a third-place bronze medal. 

Additional speech awards were earned by Sabrina Tsai, Kaitlin Willoughby, Marlon Minchez, and Gavin D’Elia. 

In the tournament’s junior division of debate, UCSD teams took home both 2nd & 3rd place awards. The team of Kaitlyn Willoughby and Akshat Donti placed 3rd, while Shaheryar Ajmal and Harris McLeod lost, on a close vote, in the final round, taking home 2nd place. Individual debate speaking awards were awarded to Jasmine Moheb (3rd) and Shaheryar Ajmal (5th). 

The team’s head coach, Professor Robert Campbell, commented, “This was an impressive first outing for this team. Every team member performed beyond expectations, as they proudly and  strongly represented UCSD.” Many of the competing schools welcomed the return of UCSD to southern California speech and debate competition. “The team is looking forward to more tournaments in Winter Quarter. And competing schools now know to expect strong competition from UCSD,” Campbell added.