2026 Yale Invitational, Jack Howe Memorial, Marist Ivy Street Tournament

VDA Debaters Deliver Strong Results Across Three Major Tournaments

The new debate season continued with a busy weekend for VDA, as our students competed across three major tournaments — the Yale Invitational, Jack Howe Memorial Tournament, and Marist Ivy Street Invitational.

Facing strong competition from across North America, VDA debaters demonstrated strong preparation, composure, and adaptability across multiple formats. The weekend brought a number of impressive results, including multiple elimination-round appearances and strong speaker rankings.

At the Yale Invitational, VDA’s Worlds Schools team VDA JWLX, consisting of Karina Lam, Branca Xiao, Sophia Jia, and Charlene Wang, placed 20th overall in the team rankings. In the individual speaker standings, Cici Xu placed 15th overall, while Kalan Xie placed 29th.

At the Jack Howe Memorial Tournament, Joshua Zhou and Flora Tu delivered a strong performance in the Public Forum division, advancing to the Double Octofinals. Joshua also earned an impressive 25th-place speaker ranking in a competitive field.

Meanwhile, at the Marist Ivy Street Invitational, VDA debaters Gavin Zhao and Timothy Volkov advanced to the Quarterfinals, placing them among the teams that made a deep run into the elimination rounds. Timothy also finished 23rd in the speaker rankings.

Across the three tournaments, these results reflect not only competitive success, but also the continued development of VDA students as confident and adaptable debaters. From strong preliminary-round performances to advancing deep into elimination rounds, our students continue to build the skills and experience needed to compete at a high level.

These achievements are the result of consistent preparation, dedicated coaching, and the students’ willingness to learn from every round. With the season still in its early stages, there is plenty more to come from this group.

Congratulations to all of our VDA debaters on an outstanding weekend of competition! We are proud of their hard work, perseverance, and sportsmanship, and we look forward to seeing them continue to grow and achieve even greater results in the tournaments ahead.

Let’s go VDA!!!