The Brentwood High School Debate Team attended the Grand National Speech and Debate Tournament in Baltimore, Maryland over Memorial Day Weekend. The team took seven students that qualified for the tournament based upon their performance throughout the competitive season. Juniors Ellie Fitzgibbons, Michael Harries, Dallas Neely, David Rivera, Steven Sandler, and Lucy Sappington attended as well as Senior Paige Anderson. Thousands of the best competitive speakers from around the country attended the tournament and around 250 competitors were in each of 10 separate events.
Senior Paige Anderson ranked in the top 75 out of the 250 competitors in her event of Dramatic Performance. Juniors Michael Harries and Steven Sandler were also in the top one-fourth of their event, Public Forum Debate, and were only one ballot away from advancing into the elimination rounds. Juniors David Rivera and Dallas Neely did advance into elimination rounds in Public Forum Debate and placed 13th in the entire nation in Public Forum Debate. Their placement earned them national recognition and a spot at the Tournament of Champions, an invitation only tournament for the best in the country, next May.
The Brentwood Debate team heads to Indianapolis next for the National Forensic League (NFL) National Tournament. Junior Dallas Neely and seniors Paige Anderson and Chris Reichert will compete for a week in June to be among the best in the nation at the largest national tournament of the year.