Rookie Orators Earn Tournament Title
October 24, 2017
Freshmen Delu Zhao and Vishal Lashkari won the novice division in the California Parliamentary Invitational Tournament, the first national debate tournament of the year, at UC Berkeley on October 15.
Debate partners Zhao and Lashkari were undefeated at the tournament. In the final round, they earned a unanimous victory from the 5 judge panel. “We were pretty happy to have won because it was our 2nd tournament this year. Our goal was to win a trophy- after that, we didn’t really care. It was crazy winning every round,” said Lashkari.
Club president Shannon Bonet said, “It was a great surprise that we won that division. I’m proud of how they managed to get so far.”
Unlike the rookie debate club members, the veteran team, which had won the varsity division last year, was unable to advance beyond the quarterfinals, losing to Irvington High School Fremont.
“We didn’t do as well, but we got a lot of points. I can’t explain why we didn’t do so well,” said Bonet.
Last year, Campolindo ranked first in the nation for parliamentary debate and hopes to regain that title in spite of this early season setback.
In addition to Zhao and Lashkari’s novice division victory, varsity debaters Krish Visht and Colin Jones won 2 speaker awards.
“Campo represented very well. We were a force to be reckoned with,” boasted Visht.
