14 Cary Academy students traveled to Fayetteville State University on Saturday February 21st to compete in the Tarheel East District Congress Tournament. The team had an outstanding showing advancing two legislators to the National Tournament in Dallas in June, as well as placing first as a team winning sweepstakes. Nate Jones qualified to Nationals as the champion of the Senate, as well as Jack Stafford as the champion of House 3. In addition Ben Lipson and Ava Rosenbaum were the first alternates to Nationals placing 3rd in House 1 and 2nd in House 2 respectively. Divya Vijayakumar was 4th in House 2, Grace Jin placed 4th in House 3, and Leighton Boiar was the Best Presiding Officer in House 1. This is the fourth year in a row CA has qualified to compete in the National Student Congress.

Seven members of the CA Speech and Debate Team traveled to Philadelphia to compete in the Liberty Bell Classic hosted by the University of Pennsylvania over the weekend of February 13th -15th. The team had an outstanding showing with several students advancing to the elimination rounds in their respective events. Evan Ehrhardt reached the final round of Oral Interpretation placing 4th overall out of 90 competitors. Rachel Shelton reached the semifinals of Extemporaneous Speaking placing in the top 12 of 57 competitors. Dylan Lamphier and Jonathan Segal both advanced to the semifinals of Congressional Debate after each placed 3rd in their preliminary chambers. Thanks to parents Vipin Garg and Mike Ehrhardt for judging and accompanying the team to Philadelphia. 

Cary Academy repeated as Sweepstakes Champions at the 2nd Annual Eagle Open hosted by William G. Enloe High School on Saturday February 14th. 54 members of the team traveled to Enloe's campus near downtown Raleigh for the last one day local tournament of the year. The teams effort was led by a close-out of the top 6 places in Extemp, as well as placing 4 of the top 6 in each division on LD. Individual student winners were as follows:
Davis Braswell-1st Place, Extemp
Divya Vijayakumar-2nd Place, Extemp; 3rd Place, Impromptu
Charlie Taylor-3rd Place, Extemp
Kendall Bell-4th Place, Extemp
Ellie Buckner-5th Place, Extemp
Alex Qiao-6th Place, Extemp
Max Nunez-6th Place, OI
Nate Jones-2nd Place, Senate
Spencer Reed-Best PO, Senate
Anjali Velu-4th Place, House
Ben Lipson-6th Place, House
Alex Knott & Riya Thomas-1st Place, Novice PF
Jason Hallman & Samuel Chow-5th Place, Novice PF
Ethan Kerns & Emilio Ochoa-4th Place, Varsity PF 
Daisy Gray & Maaya Dev-6th Place, Varsity PF
Grace Jin-2nd Place, Varsity LD
Julia Gong-3rd Place, Varsity LD
Grey Spector-5th Place, Varsity LD
Jack Maxfeild-6th Place, Varsity LD
Chirstof Ketchmark-7th Place, Varsity LD
Chelsea Fang-2nd Place, Novice LD
Justin Tunley-4th Place, Novice LD
Oonagh Stevans-5th Place, Novice LD
Cole Spector-6th Place, Novice LD

Cary Academy hosted the speech and debate portion of the National Speech and Debate Association Tarheel East District National Qualifying tournament the weekend of January 31st and February 1st. Over 200 competitors from 24 different schools in Eastern North Carolina came to our campus to compete for the right to represent the Tarheel East District at the National Speech & Debate Association's National Tournament in Dallas, Texas in June. CA was fortunate to have 5 students qualify to compete at Nationals on the basis of the results of the weekend's tournament. For the second year in a row Emma Ehrhardt qualified to Nationals in Original Oratory placing second in that event. Senior Laura Cabana finished second in Lincoln Douglas Debate as a Cary Academy LDer qualified to Nationals for the third straight year. Bharat Modi was 4th in both United States and International Extemp and qualified to attend Nationals for the second straight year when he moved in United States Extemp due to double qualification. This is the 15th straight year that a Cary Academy Extemper has qualified to Nationals, as well as the 15th straight year Cary Academy will participate in the National Tournament, the longest streak of any school in the Tarheel East District. Grace Jin and Bill Peebles were the first alternates in Lincoln Douglas Debate and International Extemp respectively, and by virtue of that qualified to be on the Tarheel East District team for the newly created World Team Debate competition. Other students who made impressive runs at the tournament include Divya Vijayakumar who was 6th in International Extemporaneous Speaking, Rachel Shelton who was 6th in US Extemp, Evan Ehrhardt who reached the semifinals of Dramatic Interpretation, Miles Lambert and Shane Stephens who were 8th in Public Forum. The team of Pranav Nair and Khushi Surana reached the fifth round of Public Forum, and Daisy Gray and Taylor Morin, as well as Julia Gong and Henna Judge reached the 4th round of the debate events.  

Cary Academy was the Sweepstakes champion for the third straight year at the All Star Invitational hosted by Gray's Creek High School in Fayetteville on Saturday January 25th. 42 members of the team traveled to Fayetteville to compete in the tournament and the following individual student placements contributed to the team's victory:
Spencer Reed-1st Place, Congressional Debate Chamber 2
Grace Jin-1st Place, Varsity Lincoln Douglas Debate
Laura Cabana- 2nd Place, Varsity Lincoln Douglas Debate
Oonagh Stevans- 1st Place, JV Lincoln Douglas Debate
Chelsea Fang- 2nd Place, JV Lincoln Douglas Debate
Sullivan Morgus-7th Place, JV Lincoln Douglas Debate
Justin Tunley-8th Place, JV Lincoln Douglas Debate
Daisy Gray & Maaya Dev-1st Place, Varsity Public Forum Debate
Taylor Morin & Sammi Frankel- 3rd Place, Varsity Public Forum Debate
Alex Knott & Riya Thomas-5th Place, JV Public Forum Debate
Jason Hallman & Samuel Chow-12th Place, JV Public Forum Debate
Evan Ehrhardt-3rd Place, Dramatic Interpretation & Oral Interpretation
Bharat Modhi-2nd Place,Extemporaneous Speaking
Ellie Buckner-5th Place, Extemporaneous Speaking
Jimmy McShane-6th Place, Extemporaneous Speaking

Junior Rachel Shelton and sophomore Divya Vijayakumar traveled to New York City over the weekend of January 23rd to 25th to compete in the invitational tournament hosted by Columbia University. Both students advanced to the elimination rounds of Extemporaneous Speaking placing in the 23 of a field of 66 competitors. CA alum Ted Waechter judged for the team. 

Cary Academy emerged victorious after an intense weekend of competition winning first place sweepstakes at the first ever Cavalier Invitational hosted by Durham Academy the weekend of January 17th and 18th. The team's efforts were spearheaded by Jack Stafford and Grace Jin both of whom won their respective events receiving swords as the tournament champions. Jack was the champion of Congressional Debate after finishing second in his preliminary chamber to advance to finals. He was joined in finals by Nate Jones and Charlotte Waechter who placed 3rd and 4th respectively in their preliminary chambers. Nate also placed 2nd in finals allowing CA to close out the tournament. Jin won Lincoln Douglas Debate on a split 2-1 decision in the final round after winning both her semifinal and quarterfinal rounds 3-0. In the Speech events Bharat Modhi and Emma Ehrhardt were the runners up in Extemp and OO respectively. Other finalists included Divya Vijayakumar (3rd-Extemp); Evan Ehrhardt (4th-DI), and Rachel Shelton (7th Extemp).

The first tournament of the new year saw 18 members of the CA Speech and Debate team travel to Charlotte to participate in the Laird Lewis Invitational hosted by Myers Park High School. Nate Jones and Jack Stafford both advanced out of their preliminary chambers of Varsity Congressional Debate to advance to finals where they placed 3rd and 6th respectively. CA was the only school to have multiple people place in the top 6. Nate finished second in his preliminary chamber, Jack finished third. In Novice Congressional Debate Jonathan Segal finished 6th overall after placing second in his preliminary chamber to advance to finals. In Novice LD Sullivan Morgus and Chelsea Fang both reached the elimination rounds with Sullivan reaching Quarterfinals, and Chelsea Octafinals before losing. In Varsity Public Forum Debate the team of Daisy Gray and Taylor Morin reached the Octafinal round before losing. The Novice Public Forum team of Robert Schellenberger and Ziyanna Greene failed to clear on speaker points.

20 members of the Cary Academy Speech and Debate team traveled to Greensboro on Saturday December 13th to compete in the Guilford County Challenge hosted by Northwest Guilford High School. The team had an excellent showing placing 5th in overall sweepstakes. The team's effort was led by Jack Stafford who was the champion of Chamber B of Varsity Congressional Debate. Also placing in Congressional Debate was Georgia Dietz who was 4th in JV Chamber A. In speech Evan Ehrhardt was 6th in Dramatic Interpretation, and Divya Vijayakumar was 4th in Extemporaneous Speaking. In Debate CA was the only school to have multiple debaters place in Varsity Lincoln Douglas with Laura Cabana placing 3rd and Keegan Kerns placing 6th. In JV LD, Sullivan Morgus was the champion of one division, and Chelsea Fang was the runner-up in the other. Tylor Moore placed 6th in his division of JV LD as well.

17 Cary Academy students traveled to our nation's capital over the weekend of December 5th to 8th to compete in the Patriot Games hosted by George Mason University and then to attend Oral Arguments at the United States Supreme Court the following Monday. CA had an excellent showing at the tournament led by senior Bill Peebles who reached the final round of Impromptu Speaking placing 5th, in addition to reaching the quarterfinals of Extemporaneous Speaking. He was joined in the speech elim rounds by freshman Evan Ehrhardt who reached the quarterfinals of Dramatic Interpretation. In Congressional Debate Jack Stafford and Ava Rosenbaum both reached the semifinals after advancing out of their preliminary chambers. Three CA Lincoln Douglas Debaters reached the elimination rounds with Nyal Patel, Keegan Kerns, and Grace Jin advancing to the octafinal round before losing. The Public Forum team of Daisy Gray and Maaya Dev reached the Double Octafinal round before being eliminated. The Monday after the tournament the team attended oral arguments and recieved a tour at the US Supreme Court where former CA LDer Haley Nix is currently working as a clerk for Justice Clarence Thomas.