Speech and Debate's Recent Tournament at Santa Clarita

By Annie Krakovsky ‘27

On January 24, 2024, there was a Speech and Debate competition at West Ranch High School, Santa Clarita. Our school competed with two teams: Taft High School and Granada Hills Charter High School. 

The competition was an IE event, which stands for Individual Event, meaning that the competitors competed by themselves in front of judges. In an IE event, each competitor enters a “room” or classroom at the location, in front of judges and at least six peers/competitors from different schools. The competitors get to watch each other perform their pieces. As for the judges, there are about two in each room.

For an IE tournament, there are numerous events such as Original Oratory, Dramatic Interpretation, Duo Interpretation, Humorous Interpretation, Poetry, Program Oral Interpretation, Prose, Storytelling, and Impromptu, which are all written or worked on by the competitors, prior.

Our Speech and Debate members were very successful. Madison Klamon won first place for Storytelling and she also won third place for Declamation. Wafa Latifi placed eighth in Declamation. Abby Lucas and Aya Yusefbekova placed third for Duo Interpretation, Maribelle Boktor placed fourth for Humorous Interpretation, and Moss Dunavan got eighteenth place in Informative Speaking. Spencer Diep placed 15th out of 40 competitors for Impromptu and got an Excellent Certificate. Pattarin Khajornchaikul got fourth place in the Program Oral Interpretation. Grace Mischkot placed fifth in Program Oral Interpretation and fourth in Storytelling, earning a Superior Certificate. It’s important to note that these events had up to about 50 people in each. 

Speech and debate’s next competition is at Arroyo Grande on March 2nd for Congress state qualifiers. Make sure to wish our Speech and Debate team good luck!