Lee speech, debate team wins three state titles

LEESBURG — After a series of unrivaled performances in competition, the Lee County High School Speech and Debate Team brought home three state titles this past weekend at the first and second year state championships and the first leg of the varsity state championships at Lassiter High School in Marietta.

“This was an incredible team effort that resulted in our students winning some of the highest honors in Georgia speech and debate,” Coach Kyle Constable said. “We won the second-most state titles of any team at the tournament, including one of just two varsity state championship events hosted this weekend. Lee County is no longer an afterthought. We’re at the forefront of speech and debate in this state.”

Yugansh Malik, a junior in his fourth semester with the team, brought home the program’s second-ever Georgia Forensic Coaches Association (GFCA) varsity state championship, winning the House of Representatives division of Varsity Congressional Debate. Lee County won this division in 2013 for the program’s first varsity GFCA title. He was pitted against more than 30 other mock legislators from across the state. This is the program’s 17th state championship in varsity-level GFCA state competition and GHSA state competition combined.

Two sophomores also brought home state championships in their respective first-year (novice) divisions.

Liam Lower, a sophomore in his second semester with the team, won the Novice Lincoln-Douglas Debate state championship with an undefeated record. He faced the state’s top first-year debate competitors and advanced through four preliminary rounds and three elimination rounds to win the title. This is Lee County’s first GFCA state title in a debate event and the school’s first debate-event state championship in more than a decade.

Nicole Fye, a sophomore in her second semester with the team, also received top honors, winning the state championship in Novice Original Oratory. She became Lee County’s first-ever novice state champion upon receiving her award. Lower won his state title later in the evening.

The team also received several other top placements in Varsity Congressional Debate. Sixth-semester junior Eli Lamb received sixth place in the Senate division, his highest placement in GFCA varsity-level competition ever. Second-semester freshman Chandler Bowman and second-semester sophomore Samuel Gyorfi placed eighth in the House of Representatives and Senate, respectively. Fourth-semester sophomore Ashley Davis placed ninth in the House.

In addition, second-semester junior Elisabeth Bennett placed third in Novice Humorous Interpretation while second-semester freshman Isabella Sauls placed fourth, rounding out the team’s performance in first-year competition.

The team will travel to Marist School in Atlanta in two weeks for the GFCA Varsity State Championships, where qualified students will compete in the 10 remaining varsity-level competition divisions. In the meantime, the team will travel to Carrollton High School this weekend for the Atlanta Diocese’s National Catholic Forensic League (NCFL) National Qualifying Tournament. The top four competitors in each event qualify to the Grand National Tournament in May – one of the two major national championship tournaments.