2024 Stanford
38th Annual Stanford Invitational
This weekend 18 teams represented Vancouver Debate Academy at the 38th Annual Stanford Invitational, where they battled it out against over 300 other schools in five different divisions. We are SO proud to announce the results and share our success!
Starting with Middle School, we had an incredible showing from our students in this division! The teams of Isabel Jiang and Steven Shi, and Anthony Fuliu and Eaton Li, had a fantastic run making it to the Double Octofinals, landing them in the top 32 teams out of 162! Excellent job, team!
In the Open division, three teams advanced beyond the prelims! The teams of Victor Chen and Victor Zhang, and Bruce Zhong and Annie Zhou, made it to Octofinals, landing them in the top 16! Advancing to the top 8 and landing in Quarterfinals were the team of Ardelle Tian and Andy Zhang!
We also had a strong showing with speaker awards in Open! Ardelle Tian received 9th place speaker, Victor Chen received 8th place, and Victor Zhang snagged the top speaker award! This was out of over ONE HUNDRED speakers!
For the TOC division, we had an EXCELLENT run from the team of Aarav Motivala and Sahaj Bhandari! This team fought it out in the TOC division, which has over 265 teams, and ended their journey in Quarterfinals, landing them in the TOP EIGHT! This feat also means that they have received a Gold Bid to the Tournament of Champions! On top of picking up a Gold Bid, Sahaj Bhandari received 27th speaker out of 530! FANTASTIC JOB, guys!
Finally, in Junior Varsity, VDA brought six talented teams to compete against over 100 other teams and advanced four teams past the prelims! The team of Eric Jin and Alex Jin advanced to the Octafinals, landing them in the top 16! As well, the team of Catherine Zhao and Zaria Xia advanced to the Quarters, landing them in the top 8! We also had a VERY strong showing from the team of Clair Xing and Flora Tu, who advanced all the way to SEMIS, where they were walked by another VDA team, landing them in the top 4 at the tournament! Finally, we had the team of Yannie Ye and Iona Jiang, who DOMINATED the competition and fought all the way to Finals, where they ended their journey with a claim to second place!
We also had a very strong showing for speaker awards in Junior Varsity! Clair Xing received 17th speaker out of 222! As well, Iona Jiang received 8th place speaker and Yannie Ye walked away with 5th! Amazing job, team!
Overall, VDA showed the competition that we have A LOT of strong teams, strong arguments, and strong communication skills! We are so excited to celebrate our achievements this weekend as we look forward to our upcoming competition at Harvard! Thank you for your continued support, VDA family!
VDA Honor
HS JV Finalist Yannie Ye & Iona Jiang HS JV Semifinalist Clair Xing & Flora Tu HS JV Octofinalist Zaria Xia & Catherine Zhao HS JV Octofinalist Alex Jin & Eric Jin HS Open Octofinalist Victor Chen & Victor Zhang HS Open Octofinalist Bruce Zhong & Annie Zhou HS Open Quarterfinalist Aarav Motivala & Sahaj Bhandari HS Open Quarterfinalist Ardelle Tian & Andy Zhang MS Open Double Octofinalist Isabel Jiang & Steven Shi MS Open Double Octofinalist Anthony Fuliu & Eaton Li Personal Honor
HS JV 5th speaker Yannie Ye HS JV 8th speaker Iona Jiang HS JV 17th speaker Clair Xing HS Open 1st speaker Victor Zhang HS Open 8th speaker Victor Chen HS Open 9th speaker Ardelle Tian
Coaches