SDA’s Speech and Debate Team has secured several spots to compete at the State Tournament in Santa Clara in April.

This year, juniors Eric and Katie Wimsatt qualified for Policy Debate, juniors Kyra and Matt Benowitz for Parliamentary Debate, freshmen Oona (Blue) Flood and Sueli Gwiazdowski for Policy Debate, and sophomore Rokas Veitas for International Extemporaneous Speaking. An alternate is sophomore Kylie Ade for Expository Speaking.

About his experience, junior Eric Wimsatt said, “We went to a tournament in La Mesa for one weekend, and we won the first four rounds. At least 20 or so teams were there.”
A notable feat is the qualifying of SDA’s Policy Debate duo of freshmen, who at first were chosen as alternates.

Wimsatt said, “Sueli and Blue qualified as freshman, which is a pretty big deal. Someone dropped [out of the State Tournament], so now they’re [officially] in.”

Flood added, “I felt really lucky to get the spot because it’s rare that freshmen qualify…[I feel] gratitude for everyone that helped me along the way and for all the time I spent studying.
It’s an amazing opportunity to get in my first year of debate.”

Gwiazdowski was equally as happy and thankful for this opportunity. She said, “When I first found out, I was really…quite honestly surprised. Even thinking about making it to States freshman year, is just so overwhelming. I really want to thank SDA for being such an amazing environment for me and my debate partner to excel in.”

This journey has also been exciting for Wimsatt, who is ready to prepare for the State Competition, as well as the National Qualifiers coming up in the middle of March.
This is the third year in a row that SDA will be sending students to the State Tournament.