Students from Brentwood High School and others are headed to the National Speech and Debate Tournament in Dallas this June. A Brentwood debater is the Eastern Missouri Student of the year.
The students competed with nearly 200 others at the National Speech and Debate Association District Tournament at Clayton and Pattonville in March.
Justin Seiwell, chair of the Eastern Missouri District, said, “Every student at this tournament—qualifier or not—pushed themselves to grow in their ability to speak, persuade, think critically, and move people. What these kids do competitively isn’t easy—they each had to make huge commitments of time, energy, grit, and perseverance to do what most American’s fear: public speaking.”
See also: Brentwood HS debaters qualify for nationals, state competition, Brentwood HS starts year with ranked debaters
Nearly 40 schools participate in the Eastern Missouri District Competition, which is one of the largest of the 110 district tournaments in the country.
The event drew hundreds of students from the St. Louis area, and as far as Columbia and Jefferson City. After more than 50 hours of competition 50 students from 14 different schools qualified to the national tournament.
2015 Eastern Missouri National Qualifiers:
Public Forum Debate
- Meredith Manda / Sabrina Tannehill, Jefferson City High School
- Jonathan Duffe-Holmes / Austin Koster, Brentwood High School
- Chase Scanlan / Captain Daryani, Parkway South High School
- Cole Mayfield / Seamus Saunders, Brentwood High School
Eastern Missouri 2015 Student of the Year
- Jonathan Duffe-Holmes, Brentwood High School
United States Extemporaneous Speaking
- Miriam Hauptman, Ladue Horton Watkins High School
- Zoe Lawson, Francis Howell North High School
- Moheni Patel, Pattonville High School
International Extemporaneous Speaking
- Rasika Sant, Ladue Horton Watkins High School
- Benjamin Collinger, Ladue Horton Watkins High School
- Jaelithe Virgin – Downey, Clayton High School
Original Oratory
- Blakely Broder, St. Charles West High School
- Kent Robinson, Parkway West High School
- Salena Fessehaye, Jefferson City High School
Duo Interp
- Julia Li / Tanya Esmiel, Parkway West High School
- Trishna Limaye / Ashleysha Pujari, Marquette High School
Humorous Interpretation
- Jonathan Satterfield, Jefferson City High School
- Peter Petev, Parkway West High School
Dramatic Interpretation
- Spenser Bartholomew, Jefferson City High School
- Ariella Mahoney, Parkway Central High School
Lincoln – Douglas Debate
- Jake Tarr, Clayton High School
- Alex Fredman, Parkway North High School
- Sonya Liu, Clayton High School
- Michael Pennella, Rockbridge High School
Policy Debate
- Kyle Craft / Lucy Liao, Jefferson City High School
- Maya Mutic / Patrick Naughton, Ladue Horton Watkins High School
- Kevin Zheng / Nicholas Chan, Parkway South High School
Congressional Debate
- Bobby Zitzmann, Ladue Horton Watkins High School
- Emma Sona, Oakville High School
- Michael Manda, Jefferson City High School
- Amos Chen, Parkway West High School
- Ellie Sona, Oakville High School
World Schools Debate
- Andrew Dong, Lydia Lin, Jake Eovaldi, Tony Patterson, Zainab Zaidi-Parkway South High School
- Lauren Hogan, McKenzie Shea, Tessa Smith, Caitlind Walker, Emily Wilson-Francis Howell North High School