Nine students from the San Dieguito Speech and Debate team have qualified for the California State Tournament this April in Modesto, according to debate coach Lily Bolig.

“To qualify for States, students must compete against teams from Southern California during our three weekends of Qualifying Tournaments,” said Bolig. Debaters also had to have at least a 3-1 Win-Loss record and high speaking points in their event.

In policy debate, juniors Delaney Duff and Henry Zhu placed second, junior Kate Shapiro and senior Joseph Swit placed seventh, and sophomores Sam Blakistone and Alec Maskiewicz placed eighth in their discussions of increasing economic engagement with Cuba, Mexico, and Venezuela, said Bolig.

“For Speech, students must be ranked within the top five slots in order to advance to States,” said Bolig. “Our Duo team, sophomores Cameron Sippel and Rebecca Lim, placed third in their event, and junior Sophia Hernandez placed third in Dramatic Interpretation.”

Bolig is proud of the students. “As a team, over the three weekends, our team amassed enough points to rank fifth overall. We took a total of 20 students and competed against teams of 80,” said Bolig.

Below are the qualifying students and their events:

Rebecca Lim and Cameron Sippel – Duo Interpretation
Sophia Hernandez – Dramatic Interpretation
Delaney Duff and Henry Zhu — Policy
Kate Shapiro and Joseph Swit — Policy
Alec Maskiewicz and Sam Blakistone — Policy