10 members of the Cary Academy Speech and Debate team traveled to Dallas, Texas during the week of June 15th to the 22nd to compete in the National Speech and Debate Association's National Tournament, the world's largest academic competition. Cary Academy had one of its best showings ever at the National Tournament as six of CA's ten competitors reached the elimination rounds of their primary events. RJ Jain broke in Congressional Debate for the third straight year reaching the semifinals of Senate placing him in the top 70 of 193 competitors. Cade Spector reached the Octafinal round of United States Extemporaneous Speaking placing in the top 60 of 231 competitors, and Claudia Zimmerman reached the Octafinals of International Extemporaneous Speaking placing in the top 60 of 230 competitors. Will Aarons, Eric Xing, and Jessica Zhong all reached the Triple Octafinals of Worlds School Debate as part of the Tarheel East District's teams placing in the top 64 of 193 teams. Will Aarons was also the 19th Place Speaker in World Schools. After just missing out  on breaking in International Extemp Becca Segal entered the consolation event of Extemp Commentary and after seven rounds of competition advanced to the final round as one of the last 6 students remaining out of 221 entries. After an outstanding performance in the final round Becca finished in 3rd Place and was recognized on stage at the National Awards Assembly. This is the third straight year a Cary Academy student has been recognized on the Nationals stage, and the seventh time overall. Other students who competed at Nationals were Viraj Shah in Lincoln Douglas Debate, Grace Wissink in Program of Oral Interpretation, and Jay Sagrolikar in the House of Congressional Debate.

13 members of the Cary Academy Speech and Debate team traveled to Milwaukee Wisconsin over Memorial Day Weekend to compete in the Grand National Tournament hosted by the National Catholic Forensic League. Alex Lim advanced all the way to the final round of Declamation placing 4th out of 215 entries. Will Aarons completed prelims with a perfect 5-0 record while breaking to the Double Octafinal round in Lincoln Douglas Debate. Will lost a split 2-1 decision to the eventual tournament runner-up to finish in the top 18 of 210 entries. In other events Saajan Patel just missed breaking after boarding in his preliminary Student Congress Chamber but failing to advance on student vote. In LD Colin Zhu also just missed breaking after losing his final preliminary round on a 2-1 decision.

27 members of the Cary Academy Speech and Debate team traveled to Durham Academy over the weekend of March 23rd and 24th to attempt to qualify to represent the Tarheel East District at the 2019 National Speech and Debate Tournament held in Dallas, Texas in June. After an intense two days of competition Cary Academy added 6 more national qualifiers to the three who already qualified at the District Congress tournament in February. Those students are:

• Viraj Shah, Lincoln Douglas Debate
• Cade Spector, United States Extemporaneous Speaking
• Becca Segal, International Extemporaneous Speaking
• Grace Wissink, Program of Oral Interpretation
• Will Aarons, World Schools Debate
• Eric Xing, World Schools Debate

​In addition several other students were first alternates to Nationals in their respective events. These include: Caroline Spancake (Original Oratory), Caroline Spancake and Ava Autry (Duo Interpretation), Nica Kostenko (Informative Speaking), and Han Zhang and Georgia Moorhead (Public Forum Debate). Based on the strength of these performances and several other students who placed in their respective events CA was second in overall sweepstakes, second in debate sweepstakes, and third in speech sweepstakes.  The full results of the tournament are listed below:
Viraj Shah-3rd Place, Lincoln Douglas Debate
Eric Xing-9th Place, Lincoln Douglas Debate
Han Zhang and Georgia Moorhead-4th Place, Public Forum Debate
Isaac Fan and Matthew Schaeffer-6th Place, Public Forum Debate
Cade Spector-1st Place, International Extemporaneous Speaking & 2nd Place, United States Extemporaneous Speaking
Becca Segal-3rd Place, International Extemporaneous Speaking & 3rd Place, United States Extemporaneous Speaking
Claudia Zimmerman-6th Place, International Extemporaneous Speaking & 6th Place, United States Extemporaneous Speaking
Caroline Spancake- 5th Place, Original Oratory
Elizabeth George-Semis, Original Oratory
Bayla Sheshadri-Semis, Original Oratory
Nica Kostenko-5th Place, Informative Speaking
Ava Autry and Caroline Spancake-4th Place, Duo Interpretation
Grace Wissink-1st Place, Program of Oral Interpretation
Ava Autry-5th Place, Program of Oral Interpretation

CA has now qualified for the National tournament for 19 consecutive years, the longest active streak in the Tarheel East District. CA also has a 19 year streak of having at least one Extemper qualify for Nationals, as well as seven year streak of qualifying in Lincoln Douglas Debate.
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50 members of the Cary Academy Speech and Debate team traveled to Fayetteville on Saturday March 9th to compete and judge in the Dogwood Speech and Debate League Novice Championship hosted by Cumberland International Early College on the campus of Reid Ross Classical School. For the first time ever CA was awarded overall sweepstakes for the novice championship tournament. Three CA students won titles at the tournament with Allie Chandler placing first in Lincoln Douglas Debate, Alex Lim Declamation, and JR Cobb Informative. This is the third straight year a CA student has won the championship in Lincoln Douglas Debate. The team also accomplished an impressive closeout of Lincoln Douglas Debate taking the top 7 spots and closing out the semifinal bracket completely. In addition CA closed out Declamation taking the top 3 spots, as well as taking four of the top five spots in Public Forum Debate including a closeout of one half of the semifinal bracket. The following individual students placements contributed to the teams victory:
Allie Chandler- 1st Place, Lincoln Douglas Debate
Brian Wei-2nd Place, Lincoln Douglas Debate
Simran Saini-3rd Place, Lincoln Douglas Debate
Oliver Wang-4th Place, Lincoln Douglas Debate
Marvin Koonce-5th Place, Lincoln Douglas Debate
Safiya Alvi-6th Place, Lincoln Douglas Debate
Emily Wang-7th Place, Lincoln Douglas Debate
Kelsey Welch & Allen He-2nd Place, Public Forum Debate
Andrew Lake & Alek Palakurthi-3rd Place, Public Forum Debate
Aryan Nair & Miles Ramee-4th Place, Public Forum Debate
Sarah Zhao & Abby Li-5th Place, Public Forum Debate
Alex Lim-1st Place, Declamation
Sydney Tai-2nd Place, Declamation
Katherine He-3rd Place, Declamation
Miles Lubas-5th Place, Declamation
Julia Young  & Gabby Matejowsky- 2nd Place, Duo Interpretation
Parker Courts-4th Place, Extemporaneous Speaking
Loren Troan-5th Place, Extemporaneous Speaking
Gabby Matejowsky-2nd Place, Impromptu Speaking
Julia Young-3rd Place, Impromptu Speaking
Sonia Shah-6th Place, Impromptu Speaking
JR Cobb-1st Place, Informative Speaking
Sydney Tai-2nd Place, Oral Interpretation
Kali Bate-3rd Place, Oral Interpretation
​Katie Grush-5th Place, Original Oratory

12 members of the Cary Academy Speech and Debate team traveled to Fayetteville on Saturday February 23rd to compete in the Tarheel East District National Qualifier in Congressional Debate. After an intense day of competition CA emerged with three qualifiers to the National Tournament to be held in Dallas in June. RJ Jain placed second in the Senate qualifying to Nationals for the third straight year. Saajan Patel and Jay Sagrolikar  placed 4th and 6th respectively in the House to qualify as well. Ritvik Nalamothu was named the second alternate in the House, and Vicky Jin advanced to House finals as well. This is the eight straight year CA has qualified for nationals in Congressional Debate, including five straight years were multiple students have qualified. 

 9 members of the Cary Academy Speech and Debate team traveled to Charlotte over the first weekend of trimester break to compete in the Steven Davis Invitational hosted by Ardrey Kell High School. The team of Isaac Fan and Matthew Schaeffer were named champions in Varsity Public Forum Debate after winning the final round on a spilt 2-1 decision. In Varsity Lincoln Douglas Debate both Viraj Shah and Will Aarons had 3-1 records.

32 members of the Cary Academy Speech and Debate team, the most ever, traveled to Cambridge, Massachusetts over President's Day Weekend to compete in the 45th annual Harvard National Forensics Tournament. The team had it's best showing ever at this tournament which is the largest one in the country during the regular season as 11 students advanced to the elimination rounds in their respective events. In Junior Varsity Lincoln Douglas Debate CA had four students reach the elimination rounds, the most of any school. Eric Xing advanced all the way to the final round where he was named the tournament champion on a 2-1 decision. Emily Wang reached the octafinal round before being eliminated, Brian Wei the double octafinal round, and Anisha Rustogi the triple octafinal round. In addition Eric was the 14th place speaker, and Anisha the 22nd.  In Junior Varsity Public Forum Debate the team of Georgia Moorhead and Han Zhang reached the double octafinal round where they were eliminated on a split 2-1 decision, and the team of Aryan Nair and Sarah Zhao reached the semifinal round of Novice Public Forum Debate. In Congressional Debate all three Cary Academy entries reached the elimination rounds as RJ Jain, Aleskia Kleine, and Ritvik Nalamothu advanced to quarterfinals. 

76 members of the Cary Academy Speech and Debate team traveled to Fayetteville on Saturday February 9th to compete in the last Dogwood League tournament of the season. For the sixth time in six league tournaments this season CA was the overall sweepstakes champion. This is the first time CA has gone undefeated for an entire league season, and in the four years in which the Dogwood League has existed CA has won 21 of the 24 league tournaments. In addition for the fourth year in a row CA won the Carole Hamilton School of Excellence award for accumulating the most sweepstakes points throughout the entire season of league competition. In other year end honors RJ Jain was awarded the points race championship in Student Congress, and 14 Cary Academy Students qualified to compete in the National Catholic Forensic League Grand National Tournament in Milwaukee, Wisconsin over Memorial Day Weekend. Those students were:
Viraj Shah, Lincoln Douglas Debate
Will Aarons, Lincoln Douglas Debate
Isaac Fan & Matthew Schaeffer, Public Forum Debate
RJ Jain, Student Congress
Saajan Patel, Student Congress
Aleksia Kleine, Student Congress
Sydney Tai, Declamation
Alex Lim, Declamation
Sarah George, Declamation
Emily Zhen, Declamation
Becca Segal, Extemporaneous Speaking
Cade Spector, Extemporaneous Speaking
Sydney Tai, Oral Interpretation of Literature
Caroline Spancake, Original Oratory

The following students placements contributed to the teams victory at DSDL #6:
Viraj Shah-1st Place, Varsity Lincoln Douglas Debate
Colin Zhu-5th Place, Varsity Lincoln Douglas Debate
Will Aarons-6th Place, Varsity Lincoln Douglas Debate
Eric Xing-7th Place, Varsity Lincoln Douglas Debate
Folu Ogundipe-2nd Place, Novice Lincoln Douglas Debate
Natasha Sachar-3rd Place, Novice Lincoln Douglas Debate
Emily Wang-4th Place, Novice Lincoln Douglas Debate
Safiya Alvi-5th Place, Novice Lincoln Douglas Debate
Allie Chandler-7th Place, Novice Lincoln Douglas Debate
Casey Powell-8th Place, Novice Lincoln Douglas Debate
Isaac Fan & Matthew Schaeffer-2nd Place, Varsity Public Forum Debate
Georgia Moorhead & Han Zhang-6th Place, Varsity Public Forum Debate
Adithi Sundaram & James Taylor-7th Place, Varsity Public Forum Debate
Ryan Chen & Matthew Crow- 1st Place, Novice Public Forum Debate
Aryan Nair & Abby Li-2nd Place, Novice Public Forum Debate
Aanya Sachdeva & David Howard-3rd Place, Novice Public Forum Debate
Kelsey Welch & Allen He-4th Place, Novice Public Forum Debate
Alek Palakuruthi & Andrew Lake-5th Place, Novice Public Forum Debate
Owen Kadis & Adam Farris-6th Place, Novice Public Forum Debate
RJ Jain-1st Place, Student Congress Chamber A
Ritvik Nalamouthu-5th Place, Student Congress Chamber A
Alex Lim-1st Place & Top Novice, Declamation
Sydney Tai-4th Place, Declamation
Sarah George-5th Place, Declamation
Gabby Matejowski-7th Place, Declamation
Julia Young & Gabby Matejowsky- Top Novice, Duo Interpretation
Cade Spector-2nd Place, Extemporaneous Speaking
Emily Zhen-3rd Place, Extemporaneous Speaking
Parker Courts-6th Place, Extemporaneous Speaking
Sydney Tai-Top Novice, Oral Interpretation

42 members of the Cary Academy Speech and Debate team traveled to Newport, North Carolina on Saturday February 2nd to compete in the fifth Dogwood League tournament of the year hosted by Croatan High School. CA won overall sweepstakes for the fifth time at a Dogwood tournament this season based on strong performances in a wide variety of different events. In Lincoln Douglas Debate CA students won both the varsity and novice divisions, and CA students swept the top three places in both novice divisions of debate.  On the speech side CA had four students reach the final round of Declamation, two students reach the final round of Oral Interpretation, and won two top Novice awards. The following individual student placements contributed to the team's victory:
Viraj Shah-1st Place, Varsity Lincoln Douglas Debate
Jessica Zhong-3rd Place, Varsity Lincoln Douglas Debate
Will Aarons- 5th Place, Varsity Lincoln Douglas Debate
Oliver Wang-1st Place, Novice Lincoln Douglas Debate
Emily Wang-2nd Place, Novice Lincoln Douglas Debate
Natasha Sachar-3rd Place, Novice Lincoln Douglas Debate
Elena Huang & Adithi Sundaram- 4th Place, Varsity Public Forum Debate
Adam Farris & Alek Palakuruthi-1st Place, Novice Public Forum Debate
Aanya Sachdeva & Neha Sharma-2nd Place, Novice Public Forum Debate
Sara Zhao & Brian Wei-3rd Place, Novice Public Forum Debate
Aleksia Kleine-1st Place, Congressional Debate Chamber C
Saajan Patel-2nd Place, Congressional Debate Chamber A
Meirav Solomon-3rd Place, Congressional Debate Chamber B
Claudia Zimmerman-2nd Place, Extemporaneous Speaking
Caroline Spancake-2nd Place, Oral Interpretation
Sidney Tai-4th Place and Top Novice, Oral Interpretation; 3rd Place, Declamation
Sonia Shah-4th Place, Declamation
Emily Zhen-5th Place, Declamation
Miles Lubas-6th Place, Declamation
Julia Young & Gabby Matjowsky- Top Novice, Duo Interpretation

30 members of the Cary Academy speech and debate spent the Martin Luther King holiday weekend competing against students from 59 other schools representing 16 states at the 5th annual Cavalier Invitational hosted by Durham Academy. The team finished as the sweepstakes runner up based on strong finishes in both speech and debate events. Becca Segal broke to finals in 3 speech events finishing as the champion in Extemporaneous Speaking, the runner up in Impromptu Speaking, and third in Duo Interpretation with Margalit Mermelstein. Cade Spector broke to finals in both Extemporaneous and Impromptu Speaking placing 4th in Extemp and 6th in Impromptu. Bayla Sheshadri broke to finals in both Original Oratory and Informative Speaking placing 6th in both. Anna Ibrahim reached the final round of Impromptu Speaking placing 4th, as well as the semifinals of Original Oratory; and Caroline Spancake reached the final round of Oral Interpretation placing 6th, as well as the semifinals of Original Oratory as well. Claudia Zimmerman was also a semifinalist in Extemporaneous Speaking. On the debate side both RJ Jain and Saajan Patel advanced to the final round of Congress with RJ finishing 4th overall, and Saajan 7th. The team of Matthew Schaeffer and Isaac Fan were semifinalists in Public Forum Debate, as well as finished 5th place in the Survivor Challenge Public Forum Round Robin. In Lincoln Douglas Debate Colin Zhu reached the quarterfinal round, Viraj Shah the octafinal round, and Shannon Jenkins the double octafinal round. In addition Viraj Shah was the 7th place speaker, Colin Zhu 8th, and Will Aarons 10th. Thank you to all the parents who judged as well as alumni Evan Ehrhardt, Alex Knott, and Ben Lipson for judging as well.