Two to the Fourth Power

I just returned from the speech and debate tournament at Mt. Hood Community College, where we all crushed the competition yet again. For the past three years, we have placed 2nd at this tournament behind a certain, pesky University High School from Spokane, Washington. This year the curse undid itself: we finally finished 1st overall, edging out University by a narrow 6-point margin. In particular, the Kadish-Anderson chimera continued its unstoppable streak, winning six rounds straight. We have now won sixteen consecutive rounds and have placed 1st in three consecutive tournaments. Actually, we technically tied for 1st place with none other than B. Ford and K.P. Colin rightly concluded that it was silly to run a final round between two teams from the same school, so we split the honor and called it good. Apparently we have earned somewhat of a reputation among the debaters in the state. One opponent was heard stating, "Wilson?? Argh, I hate Wilson." Another said, "Oh man. Wilson-KA?? They always rape us."

Speaking of debate prowess, Jordan and Mackenzie--two freshmen--won second in novice public debate at their first tournament ever. Kibe and I placed 2nd and 1st respectively in extemporaneous speaking. Although our success was primarily due to the fact that the Westview nazis weren't at the tournament, we are beginning to fulfill my aspirations of creating an extemp dynasty. While we won too many awards for me to fully remember, I do want to mention that B. Ford truly showed her brilliance today. She won the award for earning the most sweepstakes points for any team. She tied with us for first in debate (which she has never seriously done before), won first in dual (which she memorized last Friday in a period of two hours), and second in after-dinner speaking (which she wrote and memorized sometime this week). Not too shabby.