"We had 256 debaters from 30 schools at State Finals today. Special thanks to coach Barbara Lyons, the Wilton High School Debate Team and Wilton High School for opening practically every door in the school to accommodate us. According to my records, this is the second largest single-school event in CDA history! The topic was: Resolved: All US residents should be required to purchase health insurance.
The varsity final round was won by the Joel Barlow team of Henry Knight and Sam Torchio on the Affirmative in a 3-2 decision against the Cromwell team of Brendan Costello and Nicholas Lovel and on the Negative. This is the second year in a row for Knight and Torchio, who were our varsity state champions last year."
More broadly speaking, this is the fourth state title Joel Barlow has won in five years. Jason Kaplan '08 and Alyssa Bilinski '09 were champions in 2008 and Alyssa won states with Evan Streams '09. Coach Randall Smith won state finals as a high school junior debating for Hamden Hall in 1991.
You can see detailed results on the CDA website:
http://ctdebate.org/
In addition, juniors Cooper D'Agostino & Cormac Cummiskey were also undefeated in varsity, finishing 6th place overall. And in novice, freshman Hunter Lightman was the 4th place novice speaker of the year!
We should also honor Emma Tower, Matt DiPalma, David Kang, Alex Cheu, B.J. Lewson, Brendan Coppinger, Nicolò Marzaro, Daanish Siddiqi, and David Freeman who all fought hard to get to states and turned in performances they should be proud of.
- Randy Smith
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Sam Torchio - 3rd varsity team at New Canaan, the Loomis-Chaffee Cup & 3rd advanced speaker & 2nd advanced pair & 2nd advanced four-person team at Loomis-Chaffee, 3rd varsity team at Westhill, 1st varsity team & 4th varsity speaker at State Finals
Henry Knight - 3rd varsity team at New Canaan, 3-0 varsity team at Warde, the Loomis-Chaffee Cup & 2nd advanced pair & 2nd advanced four-person team at Loomis-Chaffee, 3rd varsity team at Westhill, 1st varsity team at State Finals
Nicolò Marzaro - 1st varsity team & 3rd varsity speaker at AITE, 2nd varsity speaker & 3rd varsity team at Warde, 2nd varsity speaker & 2nd varsity team at Westhill
Brendan Coppinger - 1st varsity team at AITE, 3rd varsity team at Warde, 2nd varsity team at Westhill
Cormac Cummiskey - 3-0 varsity team at Joel Barlow, 3-0 at State Finals
Cooper D'Agostino - 3-0 varsity team at Joel Barlow, 3-0 at State Finals
Jack Cartafalsa - 2nd advanced four-person team at Loomis-Chaffee
Caroline Ryng - 2nd advanced four-person team at Loomis-Chaffee
Ben Lewson - 3rd varsity speaker at Westhill
Alex Cheu - 4th varsity team at AITE, 3-0 at Pomperaug
Daanish Siddiqi - 4th varsity team at AITE, 3-0 at Pomperaug
David Kang - 3-0 varsity team at Joel Barlow
Matt DiPalma - 3-0 varsity team at Joel Barlow
Emma Tower - 3-0 varsity team at Warde
Hunter Lightman - 3-0 novice team at New Canaan, 3rd novice speaker at Warde, 4th novice speaker at State Finals
Christoph Dow - 3-0 novice team at Joel Barlow
Craig Raskin - 3-0 novice team at Joel Barlow