32 members of the Cary Academy Speech and Debate team competed at Enloe High School in the 3rd annual Eagle Open on Saturday October 24th. The team had an outstanding showing tying for first place in Sweepstakes, placing second on a tiebreaker.

​The team's effort was spearheaded by taking the top 7 places in Novice LD, as well as 3rd -7th in Varsity LD. Individual student placements in LD were as follows:
Cade Spector- 1st, Novice LD 
Olivia Halferty-2nd, Novice LD
Katrine Andersen-3rd, Novice LD
Arman Kassam-4th, Novice LD
Milen Patel-5th, Novice LD
Viraj Shah-6th, Novice LD
Elizabeth George-7th, Novice LD
Sullivan Morgus-3rd, Varsity LD
Oonagh Stevans-4th, Varsity LD
Bailey Medley- 5th, Varsity LD
Yannet Daniel-6th, Varsity LD
Patrick Mulqueen-7th, Varsity LD

In Novice Congressional Debate CA took 3 of the top 5 places with Aleksia Kleine placing 1st, Grace Wissnik was 3rd, and Grace Seidel was 5th.

Alex Knott and Riya Thomas won their third consecutive tournament placing first in Varsity Pubic Forum Debate, and Davis Braswell was 6th in Extemporaneous Speaking.

CA was the Sweepstakes Champions for the second consecutive Dogwood Tournament placing first among ​25 schools that competed at Terry Sanford High School in Fayetteville on Saturday October 17th. Individual student placements that contributed to that victory are as follows: 
Alex Knott and Riya Thomas- 1st, Varsity Public Forum Debate
Ben Lipson -1st,Student Congress-Chamber 1
Emma Zayas- 1st, Declamation
Grace Jin-1st, Varsity Lincoln Douglas Debate  
Lily Levine-1st,  Novice Lincoln Douglas Debate
Nate Jones-1st, Student Congress-Chamber 3 
Aesha Desai-2nd, Oral Interpretation
Bharat Modi-2nd, Extemporaneous Speaking  
Emma Ehrhardt-2nd, Original Oratory
Grey Spector-2nd, Varsity Lincoln Douglas Debate
Matthew Mitten-2nd, Student Congress-Chamber 3   
Grace Seidel-3rd, Declamation
Jonathan Segal-3rd Student Congress, Chamber 2
Milen Patel-3rd, Novice Lincoln Douglas Debate Julia Gong-4th, Original Oratory
Rachel George-4th,  Extemporaneous Speaking
RJ Jain- 4th, Student Congress, Chamber 2 & Best Novice
Tori Boriase-4th, Novice Lincoln Douglas Debate
Rachel Shelton-5th, Extemporaneous Speaking
Sullivan Morgus-6th, Varsity Lincoln Douglas Debate
​Tommy Hughs-6th, Student Congress-Chamber 1 & Best Novice
Viraj Garg-6th, Extemporaneous Speaking 

Junior Jack Stafford and sophomore Evan Erhardt traveled to New York City over the weekend of October 17th-18th to compete in the New York City Invitational hosted by the Bronx High School of Science. Stafford reached the finals of Student Congress placing 13th overall. He was third in his preliminary chamber, as well as placed first in his semifinal chamber on his way to reaching the final round. Erhardt just missed clearing in both Dramatic and Oral Interpretation. After the tournament concluded Sunday the group attended a performance of Disney's Aladdin.

41 members of the Cary Academy Speech & Debate team traveled to Jack Britt High School on Saturday October 3rd for the inaugural tournament of the newly formed Dogwood Speech & Debate League. CA emerged victorious as the overall sweepstakes champion earning over double the points of the next closest school. The individual students who placed in their events were:
Alex Knott and Riya Thomas 1st Varsity Public Forum Debate 
Bharat Modi 1st Extemporaneous Speaking 
Chelsea Fang 1st  Varsity Lincoln Douglas Debate
Emma Zayas 1st Declamation 
Evan Ehrhardt 1st Dramatic Interpretation 
Georgia Dietz 1st Varsity Student Congress 
Luke Wilson 1st Novice Lincoln Douglas Debate
Tommy Hugus 1st  Novice Student Congress 
Caroline Spancake 2nd Novice Lincoln Douglas Debate 
Grace Jin 2nd Varsity Lincoln Douglas Debate 
Grace Wissink 2nd Novice Student Congress 
Jackson Stafford 2nd Varsity Student Congress 
Madeline Rockett 2nd Declamation 
Christian Sodano 3rd Novice Student Congress
Claudia Zimmerman 3rd  Declamation 
Evan Ehrhardt 3rd Oral Interpretation
Grey Spector 3rd Varsity Lincoln Douglas Debate 
Nadine Atieh 3rd Novice Lincoln Douglas Debate 
Aleksia Kleine 4th Novice Student Congress
Matthew Mitten 4th Varsity Student Congress
Pauline Pauwels 4th Dramatic Interpretation 
Aesha Desai 5th Oral Interpretation
Eve Taylor 5th Dramatic Interpretation
Ivan Petropoulos 5th Novice Lincoln Douglas Debate
Jonathan Segal 5th Varsity Student Congress 
Aditya Surana 6th Novice Lincoln Douglas Debate 
Ben Lipson 6th Varsity Student Congress 
Enoch Kuan 6th Varsity Lincoln Douglas Debate 
Cade Spector 7th Novice Lincoln Douglas Debate

20 Cary Academy students traveled to Southern Pines on Saturday September 26th to compete in the first local North Carolina tournament of the season the Pinecrest Open. The team turned in several strong performances in a variety of different events. In Student Congress Nate Jones placed 2nd in his varsity chamber where Ben Lipson also placed 6th. In Extemporaneous Speaking Davis Braswell was 4th in the varsity division. In Lincoln-Douglas Debate CA won 2 of the 3 divisions offered with Justin Tunley emerging as the champion in Junior Varsity and Mason Reece as the champion in Novice.This was the 5th straight year that Cary Academy has won Novice LD at the Pinecrest Open, and the second consecutive year there has been a close out of at least the top 4 spots. In addition Grace Jin was 5th in Varsity, Oonagh Stevans was 4th in JV, and CA closed out the top four spots in Novice LD with Lily Levine, Viraj Shah, and Anna Ibrahim placing 2nd -4th respectively. In addition Tori Borlase, Kevin Chen, and Salma Said were 3-1 but failed to place on points. Viraj Shah was the top speaker in Novice while Justin Tunley was the top speaker in JV.

Seven members of the Cary Academy Speech and Debate team traveled to New Haven, Connecticut over the weekend of September 18th-20th to participate in the Yale Invitational, one of the largest and most prestigious early season invitationals in the nation. CA had multiple students advance to the elimination rounds in their respective events. Evan Ehrhardt reached the quarterfinals of Oral Interpretation. Jack Stafford and Georgia Dietz placed 2nd and 6th respectively their preliminary chambers before advancing to the semifinals of Student Congress. Grace Jin just missed clearing out of her preliminary chamber placing 7th. In addition to competing the team took a walking tour of the Tenement Museum in New York before catching their flight home. 

The Cary Academy Speech and Debate team opened its competitive season by participating in the National Earlybird Tournament hosted by Wake Forest University the weekend of September 11th - 13th. The team had an impressive showing led by Evan Ehrhardt who reached the finals of Dramatic Interpretation placing 4th out of 41 competitors. Rachel Shelton was a semifinalist in Impromptu Speaking placing in the top 12 of 43 competitors, and Bharat Modi and Divya Vijayakumar both reached the quarterfinals of Extemporaneous Speaking. Grace Jin was the 9th place speaker and reached the Octafinal round in Varsity Lincoln Douglas Debate. In Junior Varsity Lincoln Douglas Oonagh Stevans was the 7th place speaker , and Chelsea Fang would have cleared to Octafinals except for an error in tabulation. The Public Forum team of Alex Knott and Riya Thomas failed to clear on points in open Public Forum.