Connor Whitehill ’20 and Alden O’Rafferty ’19 take second place at the UC Berkeley Parliamentary Debate Invitational
O’Dowd debaters Alden O’Rafferty ’19 and Connor Whitehill ’20 took second place at the UC Berkeley Parliamentary Debate Invitational, held October 6-7, sponsored by the Debate Society of Berkeley.
Alden and Connor, competing in a field of 63 teams, battled some ups and down and finished prelims with a 3-2 record that qualified the duo for Sunday’s elimination rounds. In elims, Alden and Connor defeated Hillview in double-octofinals and Evergreen Valley in octofinals before being matched against O’Dowd teammates Lucy Barretto ’21 and Lola Deibert ’21 in quarters. Tournament rules do not allow teams from the same school to face off, so coach David “Bear” Saulet selected O’Rafferty & Whitehill to walkover Barretto & Deibert to sems. Alden and Connor took down Menlo-Atherton in the semifinal round before falling to Campolindo in the tournament’s championship round.
The aforementioned Baretto & Deibert had a fantastic performance at Cal, racking up a 4-1 preliminary record and receiving a bye to the octofinal round where the sophomore duo bounced Irvington from the tournament before stepping aside in the quarterfinal round. Sofia Odeste ’19 and Adam Stone ’20 dropped their first two rounds but scored victories in their final three debates to qualify for elims. Odeste & Stone bested Berkeley in doubles and Menlo-Atheron in octos before dropping on a 2-1 to Menlo-Atherton in quarters.
O’Dowd’s novice pair of Sylvie Richards ’22 and Vivan Singhal ’21, competing in a field of 29 teams, compiled an excellent 3-1 preliminary record but dropped to Washington High School on a 2-1 in their quarterfinal match.
O’Dowd will see its next debate action this upcoming weekend at Cal State Fullerton.