Courthouse hosts 2024 HUDL City Championships

On March 2, 2024, Houston high school students celebrated a Texas Independence Day to remember: participating in the final elimination rounds of the Houston Urban Debate League City Championships for the 2023-2024 school year.

Having already won qualifying tournaments sponsored by the Houston Independent School District and Harris County Department of Education's CASE Debates program, the city's top debaters assembled to compete in HUDL's five divisions, each representing a distinct style of academic debate: Policy, Public Forum, World Schools, Lincoln-Douglas, and Congressional. This year's tournament was hosted at the historic Bob Casey Federal Courthouse in downtown Houston.

Thanks go to the staff, volunteers, and supporters who helped make this exciting event possible, including Andy Stubbs, Javier Lopez, John Rassenfoss, Veronica Carroll, Chellie Martinez, Judge Marvin Isgur and the judges of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas. Special thanks go to Heather Hatfield and the Hatfield family for underwriting the Benjamin Donald Hatfield Scholarships awarded to our champions.

This year's HUDL City Champions:

Congressional

Champion - Rebecca Oyeniyi, Alief Kerr HS

Second - Sean Mclain, Alief Kerr HS

Lincoln-Douglas Debate

Co-Champions - Sarah Cruser and Christianna Thomas, both of Heights HS

Public Forum Debate

Champions - Sebastian Pan and Kashyapi Atri, Debakey HS

Second - Shining Sun and Cynthia Kong, Debakey HS

Policy (Cross-Examination) Debate

Co-Champions - Kaitlyn Lewis & Alara Eyuboglu, and Matthew Gonzales-Gordon & Alexander Prieto, both of Heights HS

World Schools Debate

Champions - Taha Asghar-Ali, Andres Henriquez, Preston Hershkowitz and Tej Aliota, of Spring Branch ISD's Westchester Academy for International Studies