Forensic Society Wins Big at States

Jessica Fiddes

Posted March 8, 2010

The Delbarton Forensic Society brought home some heavy duty hardware from the New Jersey Forensic League State Championship Tournament in early March. (Photos: Donald Sweetman P'11)

Competition requires work, focus and polished public speaking skills.

Connor Buckley ’11 and Andrew MacMaster ’11 are the first ever Delbarton individual State Champions in Duo Interpretation of Literature. Here they are congratulated by their coach, Br. Kevin Tidd.

The Delbarton Forensic Society competed at the New Jersey Forensic League’s State Championship Tournament on March 5 and 6, 2010 at Ridge High School in Basking Ridge. The team finished at a program best, placing fourth overall out of 32 schools, with a second place finish in debate events.

Connor Buckley ’11 and Andrew MacMaster ’11 are the first ever Delbarton individual State Champions in Duo Interpretation of Literature, earning straight ranks of 1st in both the semi-final and final rounds of their event.

In debate events, Dhruv Sharma ’10 and Kevin Sullivan ’10 were the runners-up in Public Forum Debate, Delbarton’s best finishers at the State Tournament in Public Forum to date. Bud Peters’ 11 and Thomas Pigott ’11 were 3rd in Public Forum Debate after having to be paired against Dhruv and Kevin in the semifinal, requiring their coach, Br. Kevin Tidd, to make the difficult decision to advance the higher seeded team to the tournament finals. Freshmen Kabbas Azhar ’13 and Matthew Chuckran ’13 joined sophomores Brian Paskas ’12 and Lee Terwilliger ’12 as 3rd and 4th place finishers, respectively, in JV Public Forum Debate. Zachary Posess ’12 was 3rd in JV Lincoln-Douglas Debate, Ritchie Shen ’12 was 3rd in Novice Lincoln-Douglas Debate and Hunter Dougherty '11 was 8th in Student Congress.

In speech, Connor Buckley ’11 was 4th in Dramatic Interpretation of Literature and Thomas Flatley ’12 was 5th in Original Oratory.

Other award winners included James Weldon ’12, Brian Jung ’12, David Colavita ’12 (quarter-finalists in JV and Novice Lincoln-Douglas Debate), Nishwant Swami ’13 (Semi-finalist in Declamation and Impromptu Speaking), Matthew Gibbons ’12 (Semi-finalist, Impromptu Speaking), Jack Price ’13 (Semi-finalist in Declamation), and Andrew Tsukamoto ’12 (Semi-finalist, Impromptu Speaking).

Given the relative youth of quite a few of Delbarton's high achieving forensic competitors, the future looks bright for Green Wave Forensics. Congratulations to these award-winning public speakers!