Congratulations to our team members who attended NSDA Nationals in Fort Lauderdale this year. A special congratulations to senior Bryn Bennett, who made the national quarterfinals in Program Oral Interpretation!
NCFL Results
Congratulations to all three of our NCFL qualifiers who competed this weekend at Grand Nationals in Washington, DC. Special congratulations to:
- Katherine Hu, Octafinalist in Original Oratory
- Caitlyn Dempsey, 10th place in Oral Interpretation
CFL 1 and Princeton
Below are the results for the first Newark CFL tournament of the year:
- Katherine Hu – 4th place, Original Oratory
- Paul Ward & Allie Wu – Quarterfinalists, Varsity Public Forum
AND – it’s that time again! The Princeton Classic is coming up soon. Waitlists for the tournament will be cleared next week, so make sure to sign up ASAP. Even if you aren’t 100% certain that you can attend, it’s better to sign up now and drop later than waiting too long with the possibility of not getting in. Princeton sign-ups are here. Deposit information will be handed out at meetings this week – those will be due on November 8.
Results & October Tournaments
Big Bronx Results:
Bryn Bennett placed 2nd in Program Oral Interp at this major national tournament! Congratulations!
October Tournaments:
Our first local tournaments of the year are coming up in the next two weeks. We encourage all team members to sign up for these – the earlier you start competing, the more practice you get, and the earlier you get feedback from judges. Sign up below for:
CFL #1 @ Union Catholic – 10/21
FYI – for Phillipsburg on, our new policy for sign-ups will be one week ahead of the tournament. So, the sign-up deadline for Phillipsburg will be this Satuday, 10/21.
Yale Results
Congratulations to the following team members who competed at the Yale Invitational this weekend and advanced to elimination rounds!
- Lauren Spencer – Quarterfinalist, Dramatic Interpretation
- Kathryn Altman – Quarterfinalist, Humorous Interpretation
- Nicole Nissel & Briana Nissel – Semifinalists, Duo Interpretation
NSDA Nationals Results
Shefali placed in the top 60 in the nation in her main event of Informative Speaking, and placed in the top 20 in the nation in her supplemental event of Poetry Interpretation.
Congratulations!
NCFL Results
Please congratulate our two students who competed this weekend at the NCFL Grand National Tournament in Louisville, KY, Claudia Pietrus (OO) and Caitlyn Dempsey (OI). Special congratulations to Caitlyn for breaking to octafinals in Oral Interpretation, placing in the top 50 nationally!
2017-18 Officers
Congratulations to our new officers for the 2017-18 school year:
| Co-Presidents | Bryn Bennett & Renee Shen |
| Vice-President of Speech | Caitlyn Dempsey |
| Vice-President of Debate | Brandon Luong |
| Vice-President of Communications | Allie Wu |
| Captain of Interpretation | Kathryn Altman |
| Captain of LPPAC | Claudia Pietrus |
| Captain of Public Forum | Julia Yan |
| Captain of Lincoln Douglas | Simran Kakkar |
Districts & National Tournament Qualifiers
Here are the results for our last regular tournament of the 2016-17 season!
New Jersey District Qualifying Tournament:
- Sam Halpern – Semifinalist in Domestic Extemporaneous Speaking
- Caitlyn Dempsey – Semifinalist in Program Oral Interpretation & Dramatic Interpretation
- Bryn Bennett – 2nd alternate in Humorous Interpretation
- Lauren Spencer – Qualifier in Dramatic Interpretation
- Shefali Das – 1st alternate in Original Oratory, qualifier in Informative Speaking
This means that we have FOUR students who have qualified in their events to a national championship tournament, and THREE who are alternates to those tournaments! Please congratulate the following students on their qualification, and wish them luck at the end of this school year:
2017 NCFL Grand Nationals (Louisville, KY):
- Caitlyn Dempsey (OI)
- Claudia Pietrus (OO)
- Jordan Pontelandolfo (1st alternate, OI)
2017 NSDA Nationals (Birmingham, AL):
- Shefali Das (INF & 1st alternate, OO)
- Lauren Spencer (DI)
- Bryn Bennett (2nd alternate, HI)
What an end to our season! Well done all.
States Results & Districts
First, we have our results from this weekend’s State Championships. We are so proud of all the hard work everyone on the team has put in over the year that has led to this point – students, parent judges, and coaches alike. Our individual successes and our sustained success as a program are based totally in all that you do.
- Shefali Das – state semifinalist in Original Oratory
- Caitlyn Dempsey – state semifinalist in Program Oral Interpretation
- Claudia Pietrus – state semifinalist in Impromptu Speaking
- Jess Wattman – state semifinalist in Oral Interpretation
- Lauren Spencer – 4th place Dramatic Interpretation
- Bryn Bennett – 5th place Humorous Interpretation & 3rd place Program Oral Interpretation
- Sam Halpern – STATE CHAMPION IN CONGRESSIONAL DEBATE
- Team Sweepstakes – 6th place, Speech
Massive thanks are in order for all that everyone has done to get us to this point. For all our members for whom this was their last tournament this year, well done and thank you!
***
Districts is this week! All students selected to attend Districts (at Summit HS) are expected to attend our meeting after school Tuesday for important information. Districts is a special tournament that determines who will represent New Jersey at NSDA Nationals in June, so there are particular rules and regulations about competition. It is very important that everyone be at the meeting on Tuesday.
HOWEVER
Winter is not through with us, apparently, and as I write this Tuesday looks to be close to a sure bet for school cancellation. So if there is indeed a snow day, I would ask that everyone come in at lunch on Wednesday for a brief meeting on Districts instead. It will not last all of lunch, but if you want to bring your lunch and stay there, I suppose I will let you get away with that just this once. If Wednesday is somehow a snow day as well (not outside the realm of possibility, if my amateur meteorologist friends are correct), then our meeting will be at lunch on Thursday instead, but that will be cutting things verrry short.