By Steve Fitzpatrick
Hackley’s Upper School debate team had a strong showing at the Dec. 13 HSPDP Invitational Tournament hosted by Applied Technology High School in New Jersey. Hackley earned first place in the overall School Awards with 14 total wins across six teams and second place in the Tournament Award with the second highest win percentage. And earlier in the month, the Middle School debate team also had an exciting tournament day at the Nightingale-Bamford School.
On Saturday, Dec. 6, the Middle School debate team sent seven teams to Nightingale:
- Sixth grade novice team of Hudson S., Liam D. and David O.
- Sixth grade varsity teams of Marlowe H., Masha Z. and Sophia J.; Alice Y., Sasha I. and Yena O.; Cyrus H., Maxwell A. and Tucker L.; Brilant M., Jun Yang W. and Neil S.; and Agron K., Mia A. and Theodore B.
- Seventh/eighth grade team of Michael C., Ryan L. and Sophie P.
Two of Hackley's teams successfully won 3-out-of-4 rounds: Marlowe H., Masha Z. and Sophia J.; and Michael C., Ryan L. and Sophie P.
Furthermore, in the novice division, Hudson S. took home a sixth place speaker award, while in varsity, both Ryan L. and Michael C. tied for ninth place speaker awards.
The next tournament will be on Saturday, Jan. 24, at the Blind Brook School. We hope to see more debaters there!
At the HSPDP Invitational Tournament on Dec. 13, Shreyas Kuniyil ’28, James Kirkbride ’29 and Teddy Wang ’27 (Team KKW) led the way, finishing third overall with a 4-0 record. Three other Hackley teams — Max Michael ’27, Zaira Sammi ’28 and Rohan Monday ’29; Peter Park ’27, Issac Cho ’27 and John Choi ’27; and Gabe Fossner ’27, Lilly Rosenthal ’27 and Ryan L. ’30 (also a top speaker at the Middle School event on Dec. 6!) — each earned three wins and placed among the top 15 teams.
Shreyas also won the golden gavel and was the first-place speaker, followed closely by Zaira in second. Additional top finishers included Rohan (14th) and Peter (15th). Newcomer Isra Husain ’29, along with Norah Mott ’29 and Zack Reinmann ’27, also had a great day.
We’re proud of all our debaters for their performance and teamwork.
The next US tournament will take place on Saturday, Jan. 17, 2026, at The Wilbeforce School in Princeton, New Jersey.
Go Hack!
