The Hotchkiss Speech and Debate Team returned to competition on Sunday, Nov. 17, and continued its winning ways in parliamentary debate competitions. At Choate Rosemary Hall, the Hotchkiss team finished 11-1 and took home the Top School Award for the third time in four years. Almost 150 debaters from 20 schools competed at this event.

The Advanced team finished 6-0 as the top four-person team and the first- and second-place two-person teams, sweeping all of the available team awards. Co-Captain Max Salzinger '25 finished in second place overall, missing out on first place in a tie-breaker. Co-Captains Vanessa Guerra '25 and Isaiah Stephens '25 and Shaye Lee '26 competed on the Advanced team.

The Novice team went 5-1 as the second-place novice four-person team. Clover Curry '27 and Navio Lopez '27 were the third-place novice pair. Jeremy Fang '28 finished as the third-place novice speaker in a tie with the first- and second-place finishers—in third because of tie-breakers. Annabelle Chu '28 was one point behind in fourth place.

The team has won both of the league’s parliamentary debate competitions this year after a season-opening win at Roxbury Latin. They will compete again at Buckingham Browne and Nichols in December in a parliamentary and public speaking competition.

Isaiah Stephens '25, Vanessa Guerra ’25, and Maadhavan Prasanna ’25 will represent Hotchkiss at the World Championships, which will be held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in the spring.

The Speech and Debate Team meets every Tuesday and Thursday in Room 302 at 6:30 p.m. The team always needs new novices, and everyone is welcome to attend.