NSDA Districts

The annual Tarheel East District tournament was held at Jack Britt High School in Fayetteville over the weekend of March 25th and 26th, and after two intense days of competition CA emerged with 8 more students qualified to compete in this summer's national speech and debate tournament to be held in June in Birmingham, Alabama. Those students are:

• ​Evan Ehrhardt, Program of Oral Interpretation
• ​Eesha Sachdeva, Original Oratory
• ​Grace Wissink, Original Oratory
• ​Jonathan Segal, International Extemporaneous Speaking
• ​Rachel George, United States Extemporaneous Speaking
• ​Mason Reece & Samuel Chow, Public Forum Debate
• Grace Jin, Lincoln Douglas Debate

​In addition the following students were alternates to nationals in their respective events- Chelsea Fang was the first alternate in Lincoln Douglas Debate, Cade Spector was the first alternate in United States Extemporaneous Speaking, Ben Lipson was the first alternate in International Extemporaneous Speaking, and Tori Borlase and Isaac Fan were the fourth alternates in Public Forum Debate.
​CA earned the speech sweepstakes award on the basis of 11 CA entries reaching the final round of the speech events, the most of any school. Evan Ehrhardt, Jonathan Segal, Rachel George, and Ben Lipson all reached the finals of two events with Evan doubling in POI and OO and the other three doubling in the two Extemps. Other CA entries to break in the speech events included Ryan Janssen who reached the semifinals of HI, Cade Spector who reached the semis of International Extemp, and Grace Wissink and Grace Seidel as well as Ryan Janssen  and Bret Alberse who  reached the semifinals in Duo Interpretation.
CA also earned the debate sweepstakes award on the basis of placing 3 PF teams in the top 7 of the tournament, more then any other school; as well as CA being the only school to have more then one debater reach the quarterfinals (top 8) of LD. CA had the last two undefeated debaters in the Lincoln Douglas tournament when Grace Jin and Chelsea Fang met in the sixth round of competition. Jin advanced on a coach over and byed to nationals as the undefeated champion of the tournament, and Fang went on to lose a split 3-2 decision in the qualifying round and wound up as the first alternate. 
​Having swept both speech and debate sweepstakes awards CA was also named the overall district sweepstakes champion for the second straight year and the fourth time in school history. This was also the second straight year that CA has taken home all four districts sweepstakes awards.
CA's qualification in Program of Oral Interpretation is the first in program history. CA has now qualified for every single event offered at the national tournament at least once, and has qualified for the National Tournament for 17 consecutive years, the longest active streak in the Tarheel East District. CA also has a 17 year streak of having at least one Extemper qualify for Nationals, as well as a five year streak of qualifying in Lincoln Douglas Debate and a four year streak of qualifying in Original Oratory.