Novices Land Treasure at DeSoto

The novice CX team of Haley Estrada and Tyffany Robles volunteered to debate varsity at DeSoto to help build the numbers to help one of the VCX get qualified to state.  They did more than show up; they broke to Quarters, earned the 5th Place spot and earned their first two TFA points!

Ana Giron also broke to Quarters in Novice LD.

The Boys Rule at Hockaday

The Hockaday Tournament is one of the oldest TFA tournaments in the Dallas area.  It is also the most competitive non-TOC tournament on the Fall schedule.  This tournament is a good gauge (for better or worse) how well the JBS team stands up against the best teams in the area and Texas.

Ruben Garcia and Daniel Lozano demonstrated that they have the potential to be an NCX team to reckon with on the TFA circuit.  They garnered a 3-1 record to earn the 6th seed.  They beat a St. Mark's team to break and beat a Greenhill team to advance to the Quarter-Finals.  They finished in 5th Place. The JBS Law Magnet has not had an NCX team do this well at Hockaday since Eddie Camacho and Charlie Stevens were freshmen.

Haley Estrada and Tyffany Robles also broke in NCX as the 15th seed and dropped in Octos. Haley also won 16th Best Speaker.

Results for LD are unofficial as Hockaday has not posted them on the JOT site. Kelsey Annu-Essuman broke Octos and earned an additional two points towards qualification.  If the results hold up, she will be one point shy of qualifying.

Thanks go to Ivan Garcia for the photo of Ruben and Daniel with their Silver Platter awards.

Kat Attacks Mean Green

Katia Ramirez kept the JBS Law Magnet TFA break streak alive by breaking in NLD. She advanced to the quarter-finals and finished 5th Place.  She is the first NLD debater to break and win a trophy.  See her photo below.

Quetzabel Benavides and Kelsey Annu-Essuman earned 8th and 9th Place Best Speaker awards in Varsity LD.

Several of the "Barefoot Debaters" earned 3-2 records, narrowly missing the elimination rounds on speaker points. These included Haley Estrada and Tyffany Robles in NCX, Ivan Garcia and Rolando Velasquez in VCX, and Quetzabel and Kelsey in VLD.

The LD'rs also made significant strides by winning several rounds against Hockaday debaters.  Next week The Hockaday Classic!

JBS Debaters Gopher The Points

The Judge Barefoot Debaters had several members earn TFA points at the Grand Prairie tournament this weekend.

Colton Donica and Lucero Pina had a break out tournament.  They finished the prelims undefeated and as the number one seed.  They advanced to semi finals, finished in 3rd Place and Colton won 1st Place Best Speaker.  As a result DP earned 4 TFA points.

Also earning their first two TFA points of the season in VCX were Emilio Lozano and Rolando Velasquez who broke to Quarters and finished in 5th Place.  Mike Garcia and Reuben Howard finished in 10th Place with a 3-1 record.

Kelsey Annu-Essuman continued her streak of breaking at every TFA tournament this year.  She broke to Octos and earned an additional TFA state point.  This brings her total to six.  Queztabel Benavides also broke to Octos in VLD and earned her first TFA point of the season.

Haley Estrada and Tyffany Robles, debating in only their second tournament, finished in 2nd Place in Novice CX on a narrow 2-1 split decision.  Several of the Novice LD debaters finished with winning records this weekend.

This was a very successful weekend and it would not have been possible without the support of the parents who chaperoned this weekend.  In particular, we would like to recognize and thank Ms. Adams (Joe's mom), Ms. Howard (Reuben's mom) and Ms. Velasquez (the Twins' mom) for volunteering to help this weekend.