On Saturday, April 5, 2025, 189 middle school debaters from 15 schools competed in the CT Middle School Debate League’s tournament at Central Middle School in Greenwich. They debated the motion: This House believes that the institution of the U.S. Presidency has become too powerful.

This tournament had Championship and Open divisions. Debaters qualified for the Championship division by earning 1st-15th place as speakers or team members at our previous 3 tournaments this season.

The Westfield Academy team of Pennington, Lin and Mohapatra won the Championship division on a 3-0 decision over the Memorial Middle School (Middlebury) team of Reed, Mack and Melinosky. Shreenika Patel from Timothy Edwards in South Windsor was the first place Championship speaker.

The Timothy Edwards team of Husain, Doulagar and Arun won the Open division and Mysha Husain was the first place Open division speaker.

Fifty-three high school debaters and parents volunteered as judges, making the day possible. Results may be accessed on Tabroom.com.

Thank you to the Greenwich Branch of the English Speaking Union for sponsoring the league. Special thanks to our indefatigable judges and coaches, especially Francis Norris-Oliva from Central Middle School in Greenwich for hosting and Cathy Emerick from Bethel for tabbing.

Photo Top: Savan Javeri, Whitby School, won a 2nd place medal for Overall Speaker in the Open division.
Photo Bottom (left to right): Xiaotang Huang, Aarit Vilekar and Daisy Zhang, students from Amity Middle School, placed 4th in the Open division. Aarit placed 3rd for Overall Speaker.