Speech & Debate Team Attends State Competition

On March 17 and 18, five members of the Speech and Debate Team competed at the State Competition for Forensics Public Speaking hosted by the NJ Speech & Debate League. The Mount is belongs to the Catholic Forensics League and the NJ Speech & Debate League which offer tournaments year-round in public speaking. To qualify to attend the New Jersey State Championship, students need to have finished in the top six of their category in at least one of their NJ Speech & Debate League tournaments this year.

 

Congratulations to Zoe Schack '24, Akshaya Karanam '24, Taryn Murphy '23, Victoria Fekete '24 and Maria Pasqua '26 who made the Mount in this competition! Akshaya competed in International Extemporaneous Speaking and earned a fourth place finish in the state as a finalist. Zoe competed in Original Oratory, performed her self-written piece "Sticks and Stones" and earned a place as a semi-finalist in the state (top 11). Taryn and Victoria compete as a duo in Varsity Public Forum Debate. They earned a spot in the top 30 in the state. Maria competes in Declamation Speech and earned a place as a semi-finalist in the state (top 12). Her piece was "Remarks Against Ted Yoho," which was originally delivered by Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, U.S. representative.

 

Additional team members who qualified for the State championship but were unable to compete this past weekend, were: Grace Glynn '23 (Oral Interpretation), Melissa Ramirez '24, Aayushi Arvikar '24, Mikayla Sharif '24 (Duo Interpretation).