The Speech and Debate Team had a busy weekend. The team placed 3rd in the MVC. The semi-final round saw the the team loose 1-3. MVC Debate is over for the year.
On Saturday the team went to the Wilkes Early-Bird Kick-off Classic and competed against 11 teams from the northeast. Over 100 students were in the competition. The team won 2nd place in the sweepstakes awards. E.L. Meyers finished 1st with 145 pts, PMW with 133 pts, Abington Heights with 81 pts. Lisa Johnson, 12th grade, was awarded Top Speaker award and was awarded the Wilkes Traveling Trophy. Lisa competes in Original Oratory and received perfect marks in the preliminary rounds and perfect marks in finals. This is a first for our team history!
The following were individual winners:
- Lisa Johnson, 12,Original Oratory, 1st place
- Erika Crown, 12, Dramatic Interpretation, 1st place, perfect marks
- Sarah VanSise, 11, Original Oratory, 2nd place, Preliminary perfect marks
- Casey Fannell, 11, Lincoln Douglas, 1st place, 3-0
- Kyra Tan-Tioncgo, 10, Lincoln Douglas, 3rd place
- Andrea Giaimis, 11, Lincoln Douglas, 4th place
- Kurt Boling and Justin Kurcik, 11th ,Policy Debate, 2nd place
- Cierra Ragland and Katerina Veloudous, 10th Policy Debate 3rd Place
- Joe LoPresti, 9th, Oratorical Declamation, 2nd place AND Extemporaneous Speaking 3rd place
- Christi Tan-Tioncgo, 12, Oral interpretation of Literature, 6th place
James LoPresti, 7th grade, extemporaneous, did not place at the tournament.
This was the best performance by a PM team since 1998. Additionally, Zak Pyzik, independently, attended the prestigious and invite only Manchester East tournament in Massachusetts. Zak finished 5-1 in preliminaries against the top 72 debaters in the nation. He made it to the top 32, then was eliminated. He received an award for making it to double ocatafiinals and a speaker award, 5th place.
