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235 Hope Road, Tinton Falls, NJ 07724  /  732.542.4777

Speech and Debate Competes Virtually in League Tournament

The Ranney School Speech and Debate delegation competed virtually in a National Speech and Debate League Tournament this past weekend.
 
Before the tournament, four Ranney students sent videos in for the asynchronous judging of Children's Literature, where second and third graders were the judges. Congratulations to Brielle Polizanno ’22 and Lily Egol ’22 for earning consistent third place ranks from their judges, and Lindsay Berliner ‘24 and Joseph Sciortino ‘24 who earned first place ranking at least once. 
 
In Debate, there were two Public Forum Teams (Aashima Chauhan ‘23/Connoly Chavez ’25 and Jared Gizersky ‘24/Braden Chavez ‘24) and one Parliamentary Team (Tucker Scott ’22 and Rowan Johnson ‘23) all of whom had at least one win among their four rounds.
 
Representing Ranney in Congressional Debate, first time competitor Riya Sikand ‘24, consistently spoke in this challenging online format, and earned a second place ranking from one of the judges in her second round.
 
In other speech categories, Duo performers Anna Weiner ’23 and Avery Weiner ‘25 continued to impress with their piece earning a second place ranking in one of their rooms. While Yunxuan "Haytham" Tang ‘22 tried his hand for the first time at Original Oratory, having written his own ten-minute speech on the challenges of attending high school so far away from home. William Vibert ‘25, in only his second tournament, earned an impressive third place spot in his third round of Impromptu, showing that confidence grows with time and practice.
 
Showing the growing depth of the team, Ranney School even had two students who were "Double Entered" for the first time, they were competing in two Speech Categories. Justin Atnes ‘24 had a very busy online tournament competing in both Impromptu and Radio Speaking (a category special to the Ridge Invitational) earning two first place rankings, and finishing Sixth Overall in Radio Speaking. Lindsay Berliner ‘24 who had competed asynchronously in Children's Literature, also tried her hand at the fast-paced mental challenge of Radio Speaking earning mostly first and second place rankings in all her rounds to finish the tournament Second Overall in Radio Speaking! 
 
Special thanks are due to our judges for this tournament, as well. Each school must provide judges based on the number of their entries. Mr. Peter Reynold-Wright and his wife, Avie Hochberg (a former NSDA competitor herself) for judging debate, to Emily Gizersky ‘22 for trying her hand for the first time at judging Novice Public Forum, and finally, to our amazing parent volunteer, Anisha Gizersky, for being a Speech judge.
While the Speech and Debate "Regular Season" is coming to a rapid close, with only the "Big Questions" Debate ahead, with such a deep and active team, Ranney School has a chance to represent in Districts and maybe even again in Nationals this year.
 
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Ranney School

235 Hope Road
Tinton Falls, NJ 07724
Tel. 732.542.4777

Our mission is to know and value every child, nurturing intellectual curiosity and confidence, and inspiring students to lead honorably, think creatively, and contribute meaningfully to society.