November Update

The weather is getting chillier, yet the competition is getting hotter. This month we visited Silverton High School (ish) and competed in our second tournament of the year. In this edition of our monthly update, you will find our plans for the month and some interesting tidbits about this month's tournament as well as next month's, all for your consumption. Enjoy :).

----

On Saturday, November 10th, Taylor Swift's 6th studio album, reputation, turned 1 year old. Of course, we celebrated this milestone by attending the Silverton Overflow Tournament at Sandy High School. Due to overcapacity issues, we were not able to attend the tournament at Silverton High School, per our original plans, but luckily Sandy High School stepped up to provide an alternative for us and other teams who were not able to fit all their competitors into the Silverton tournament. At this tournament, we asserted our passion once again, and even brought home some nifty certificates. These are the following results from the tournament:

Jaden Grebauer (freshman) - 4th place Novice ADS

Elizabeth Dimitrova (freshman) - 2nd place Novice Extemp

Ansu Schmitt (junior) - 6th place Novice Impromptu

Rachel Le (sophomore) - 1st place Novice Informative

Alexander Dimitrov (freshman) - 3rd place Novice Informative

Maria Gomez (senior) - 1st place Novice Poetry

Hao Li (junior) - 4th place Novice Prose

Alexander Dimitrov and Elizabeth Dimitrova (freshmen) - 1st place Novice PoFo

Shelbey Colt and Henry Dobesh (sophomores) - 3rd place Open Duo

Shelbey Colt (sophomore) - 4th place Open Informative

Zane Al-Saood (freshman) - 3rd place Open LIELL

Hunnie Sebah (senior) - 2nd place Open POI

• 

  IMG_2141

• 

  IMG_2165

Once again, the novices proved that they are a force to be reckoned with this year. The December tournament is the last tournament where the novice division will exist for the rest of the season, but given the novices proven record, we are confident that they will continue to succeed no matter what division they are in. Nice job guys!

Other miscellaneous highlights include having a dance party with Cleveland high school in the cafeteria, doing the pacer test to pass the time, and helping out a fellow teammate accomplish a task. We also made sure to sing the fight song in the process.

• 

  IMG_2164

• 

  IMG_2472

It was a really successful day, and we need to extend a thank you to everyone who helped the tournament run smoothly. This includes the people who volunteered their time as judges, as our bus driver, and as our coach, Mrs. Loeung. You guys are awesome and we appreciate you so much!

----

This month, we also have two very special birthdays to celebrate on our team. Hao Li (junior) is turning 17 on November 14th. Hao, who recently graduated out of LIELL, is focusing on prose this year. In addition, the one and only Jessica Cornea (sophomore) is turning 16 on November 22nd. Jessica specializes in PoFo debate and has been debating since districts last year.

----

That's it for November! We do have another tournament very soon on December 1st though, and I'm including the invitation for that tournament that has some important information about the overall operation of the tournament, in case you're interested. That'll be right here.

----

Now, without further ado, here is your monthly Taylor Swift gif! (you're welcome, don't mention it :))