This past weekend, O’Dowd debaters split their time between two different tournaments: The Golden Gate Speech Association at Diablo Valley College and The National Parliamentary Debate Invitational (NPDI) at UC Berkeley. At 7:45 p.m. on Sunday evening, debaters Claudia Hester, Alden O’Rafferty, Gratia O’Rafferty and Paulina Harding walked off the Berkeley campus having each reached the semi-final round in their respective divisions of varsity and junior varsity parliamentary debate.
The NPDI tournament included 36 schools, 169 teams and featured O’Dowd debaters reaching the final four rounds before losing to the Nueva School and Dougherty Valley.
At the Golden Gate Speech Association Tournament at Diablo Valley College, five of seven teams from O’Dowd came away with winning records and trophies. The team of Bethel Kifle and Ahalya Sabaratnam finished the day with an undefeated record, while the remaining four teams each lost only one round during the day-long tournament competition.
The next tournament competition for O’Dowd debate students will be held at Santa Clara University, November 17-19, 2017.