Going into the National Forensics League’s Valley Forge District National Qualifying Tournament, the Elk Lake Forensics Team’s Lincoln-Douglas Debaters had one goal: make it to the second day of the debate competition at LaSalle College High School and Chestnut Hill College.
EL Forensics Team NFL National Qualifiers: Austin Cohen, 1st Place in LD Debate and 1st Place in Congressional Debate House B; Richard Guiton, 2nd Place in LD Debate; EL Forensics Director Keith Brosious.
Not only did the team achieve that goal, but they captured both LD Debate slots to the NFL National Tournament in Indianapolis, IN in June.
Austin Cohen and Richard Guiton advanced all the way to the 7th round of debate in this double elimination tournament and placed 1st and 2nd, respectively, in LD Debate and earned slots at the NFL National Tournament.
Cohen’s journey to the eighth round included victories over debaters from Truman, Southern Lehigh, Unionville, and Danville high schools.
Cohen’s only struggle came in round 6 when he lost a debate to Michael Krause from Unionville High School. Had Cohen won this round, he would have automatically qualified to NFL Nationals.
This set up a 7th round where he had to face Meghan McDonald, who he had defeated in the 5th round, from Danville High School. Once again, Cohen won a unanimous decision and captured the first place title.
Guiton’s road to Nationals was a little more difficult. He lost to McDonald in the first round. He then reeled off wins against debaters from Unionville, Shikellamy, Truman, and LaSalle College high schools.
In round 6, he was paired against teammate Matthew Horvath. On a coach’s decision, Guiton advanced to round 7. In that round, he met up with Krause from Unionville. Guiton was able to beat Krause on a unanimous decision and capture the second slot to NFL Nationals.
EL junior and first year debater, Matthew Horvath advanced all the way to round 6, where he dropped on a coach’s decision.
As a result of having 3 of the top 5 debaters, including 1st and 2nd place, in LD Debate, EL won the Valley Forge District Debate Sweepstakes Championship. This award compiles the results of schools that have debaters in all three divisions of debate.
This was the first time Elk Lake has ever won that award. In fact, in the past 20 years, EL had, prior to this weekend, only qualified 3 debaters to the NFL National Tournament.
“There really are no words to express what this feels like. Just like they have all season, all three debaters won the rounds that they needed to win. They simply dominated a very competitive field,” commented ecstatic EL Forensics Director Keith Brosious.
Cohen also captured another title on Friday night. He won House B of Congressional Debate. However, because he already committed to LD Debate and qualified in it, he deferred the honor of going to NFL Nationals to the second place competitor in House B.
Cohen and Guiton are the first EL debaters to triple qualify as a pair. Both debaters have now qualified to PHSSL States, NCFL Nationals and NFL Nationals.
Now that the team has completed the regular competition season, the team will travel to the PA High School Speech League State Championship Tournament on March 23-24 at Susquehanna University.
