For the third time in the last eight years, Chesterton’s speech and debate team has a national champion. Senior Tyler Fabbri won the national championship in United States extemporaneous speaking, outlasting the other 226 entries in U.S extemporaneous speaking at the National Forensic League national tournament held in Kansas City last week.

Fabbri went through six preliminary rounds on Monday and Tuesday before advancing to the final elimination rounds, which eventually took him to the final round held on Friday.

Fabbri’s topic dealt with the challenges facing future generations as a consequence of the recent recession. After drawing his topic, he had only thirty minutes to prepare his speech, which he delivered to an audience of nearly 2,000 people. His cumulative scores bested the other six competitors in the final round.

Teammate, senior Adam Potrzebowski, was also a finalist for the team.

Adam placed fourth in the Senate of congressional debate. Like Fabbri, he had competed with more than 200 other entries to earn his way to the finals. Just missing finals and placing seventh in the nation in the House of congressional debate, was senior Luke Morgan. He too bested more than 200 other competitors from across the nation.

Senior Kira Geairn was a semifinalist in supplemental debate, a secondary event students may enter after their primary event.

In the largest of the supplemental events, which was offered for the first time this year (over 500 contestants), Geairn placed in the top fourteen. Teammate, senior Matt Keeley also advanced in supplemental poetry, placing in the top thirty.

“This was an outstanding finale for a very talented senior group. All of the coaches are very proud of the way they represented the team and the Duneland community. To have four competitors in the top fourteen in their respective events, is quite an accomplishment. All of our kids did well, and several others just missed advancing to the final elimination rounds,” said coach Bob Kelly.

Competing at this year’s national tournament, but not advancing in primary or supplemental events, were seniors Hayley Miller, Christian Parocco, Megan Adamczewski, Jeff Tucker and Nicole Thompson; juniors Kara Fasone, Jessica Cleary and Warren Fasone and sophomore Michael Leopold.

Coaches Bob Kelly, Chris Lowery, Doug Pishkur, Kirsten Reed and Scott Woodhouse, as well as assistant Kayla Fleming, were assisted by Toya Garcia and Christine Woodhouse with judging duties.

Posted 6/21/2010