Wellington’s speech and debate team visited its neighbor to the east, Palm Beach Central High School, on Saturday, Dec. 11 and left with an impressive number of accolades and new National Speech & Debate Association memberships.
The Red Dawn Debaters took the top three spots in Novice Oral Interpretation with Maria Ramirez in first, Madison Neltner in second and Karola Ortiz Rodriguez in third. In Dramatic Performance, Jaiden Lagalo-Blinston took first overall. Two Wolverines placed second in their respective Extemporaneous Speaking events: Adrian Perez-Rodriguez in Novice Extemp and Samuel Johnson in Varsity Extemp.
Wellington took third in two novice-specific debate events: Paula Currea in Novice Lincoln Douglas Debate, and the team of Emma Gardner and Patrick McDermott in Novice Public Forum Debate. In Novice Congressional Debate, Emma Segfeldt took third in her chamber, Elani Mohammed placed fourth, Arthur Hu-Manning took sixth and Noor El Tohamy was named her chamber’s top presiding officer. Sofia Lynch earned a gavel as her varsity senate’s top presiding officer. While not taking home hardware, Carolina Aguilera scored a rare double in Congressional Debate, as she simultaneously judged and presided over a novice congress house in the morning session.
Wellington earned 12 new NSDA degrees, including 10 new members. Achieving the Degree of Honor and earning their varsity letters were David Goldberg and Patrick McDermott. Achieving the NSDA Degree of Merit, and lifetime membership in the largest national public speaking honor society in the world, were Sean Askari, Danielle Beaulieu, Arthur Hu-Manning, Logan Joseph, Ayman Omar, Karola Ortiz Rodriguez, Adrian Perez-Rodriguez, Maria Ramirez, Emma Segfeldt and Alexandra Versailles.
Wellington’s final tournament of 2021 is the Southeast FCDI #1 at Suncoast on Saturday, Dec. 18.
