Feb. 22, 2020 - Students from 19 Houston-area high schools converged on the Bob Casey Federal Courthouse in downtown Houston to compete for the Houston Urban Debate League's city championships. Having qualified to reach the courthouse by participating in regular season HUDL tournaments and then breaking to the elimination rounds at the HISD and CASE qualifying tournaments, students from all over the greater Houston area competed to see who would be crowned champions in each of HUDL's five divisions. In the four traditional debate formats, top competitors will advance to post-season competition and receive college scholarship awards thanks to the generous contributions of HUDL supporters.
The HUDL City Champions and runners-up for the 2019-2020 season are:
Cross-Examination Debate
1st: Thomas Williams and Alex Poll, Heights High School (pictured above, right).
2nd: Lee Carter and Alfonso Arreola, Heights High School (pictured above, center).
Semifinalists (3rd):
Sebastian Arreola and Grace Sahualla, Heights High School.
Hanna Ghebrelul and Queen Eche, Kerr High School.
Quarterfinalists (5th):
Katie Pena and Samantha Tipton, Atascocita High School.
Guadalupe Blas and Angelina Martinez, North Houston Early College High School.
Jeremiah Jolivette and George Psaras, Heights High School.
Roohie Sheikh and Audrey Nguyen, DeBakey High School.
1st and 2nd place competitors will advance to the National Association for Urban Debate Leagues' national championship tournament, to be held in April at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas.
Public Forum Debate
1st: Ruafan Liu and Pranav Kumar, Carnegie Vanguard (pictured).
2nd: Nithya Erabelli and Roy Semaan, DeBakey High School.
Semifinalists (3rd):
Anjni Patel and Varshitha Krishna, Carnegie Vanguard.
Amaya Jacob and Gaurav Dutta, Westside High School.
Quarterfinalists (5th):
Heidi Chapin and Erin Smart, Houston Academy for International Studies.
Marilyn Vaca and Sophia Dai, Carnegie Vanguard.
Pranav Chemudupaty and Pranjal Sheth, DeBakey High School.
Nora Mohamed and Elvia Mora-Blanco, Carnegie Vanguard.
World Schools Debate
1st: Andy Lam, Hadeed Ahmed , Rodrigo Trujillo and Diego Castillo, Elsik High School (pictured).
2nd: Charlye Jackson, Neeharika Venuturupalli, Camille Ofulue, Megan Benavides and Deena Ali, DeBakey High School.
Semifinalists (3rd):
Pratik Pohuja, Sanshuv Joshi and Dhruv Patel, DeBakey High School.
Khadijah Muhammad, Sarah Fournier, Isis Serrano and Victoria Crowder, Spring Early College Academy.
Quarterfinalists (5th):
Shannon Ventura, Hamza Bouderdaben, Melody Ramirez and Taz Haque, Harmony School of Advancement.
Ahmad Howard, Kennedy Scott, Bodehousse Houndekon, and Mohammad Hemeida, Spring Early College Academy.
Jetaury Davis, Nia Burch and Ricardo Hammonds, South Early College High School.
Omar Ramirez, Ebenezer Appiah, Rubick Hernandez, Alan Tran and Gabriel Aiaegla, Elsik High School.
Lincoln Douglas Debate
1st: Amulya Tamma, DeBakey High School (pictured).
2nd: Tanish Madan, Carnegie Vanguard.
Semifinalists (3rd):
Jeffrey Qi, Carnegie Vanguard.
Limairy Cervates, Westbury High School.
Quarterfinalists (5th):
Aishi Gulati, Westside High School.
Runtian Du, Westside High School.
Jonathan Matinez, Westbury High School.
Rebecca Rodriguez, DeBakey High School.
Congress
1st: Jackson Nielsen, Energy Institute High School (pictured).
2nd: Raahim Siddiqui, Carnegie Vanguard.
3rd: Cole Kehn, Energy Institute High School.
4th: Nikhil Vinod, Carnegie Vanguard.
5th: JeVon Tone, Westbury High School.
Many thanks to the HUDL volunteers and supporters who made this fantastic day possible. See more of the sights of the championships below.