Harker debaters compete at the Golden Desert Tournament in Las Vegas

Raymond+Xu+%2812%29+and+Emaad+Raghib+%2812%29+pose+with+their+award.+Competing+in+a+field+of+95+teams%2C+Raymond+and+Emaad+placed+second%2C+losing+to+a+team+from+Mission+San+Jose+High+School.

Courtesy of Jenny Alme

Raymond Xu (12) and Emaad Raghib (12) pose with their award. Competing in a field of 95 teams, Raymond and Emaad placed second, losing to a team from Mission San Jose High School.

by Rashmi Iyer, Reporter

The upper school debate team competed at the Golden Desert Tournament at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas from Feb. 4 to 6, with students participating in three events: Public Forum, Lincoln Douglas and Policy debate.

The Golden Desert Tournament is one of the many national tournaments the Harker speech and debate team attends. The event invites mostly schools from the western United States to compete.

Out of the 29 students from Harker who participated, Emmiee Malyugina (12) advanced to semifinals of Lincoln Douglas and was the 13th speaker of a pool of 116 participants; Raymond Xu (12) and Emaad Raghib (12) advanced to the finals of Public Forum, with Emaad being fifth speaker out 95, and Megan Huynh (11) and Alan Hughes (11) advanced to octofinals in Policy.

For Emmiee, her performance at the tournament far exceeded her expectations going into the competition.

“I thought that I would get to the elimination rounds, but I wasn’t sure about how far I’d get,” she said. “I thought I might get to quarters.”

Debate coach Jenny Achten was pleased by how the Harker team performed at Golden Dessert.

“I had hoped we would do pretty well because we have had a successful year so far, so I was really proud of the awards that folks won,” she said.

The upper school speech and debate team will next compete at the 31st annual Stanford Invitational from Feb. 11 to 13.