Portsmouth High School debate team students qualify for national tournament

Special to Seacoastonline
·2 min read

PORTSMOUTH — Four members of the Portsmouth High School debate team — Aadit Noble, Ian Franas, Charlie Anderson and Isobel Horowitz — have qualified for the 2023 National Public Forum Debate tournament.

The four students advanced to the nationals based on their performances in the Maine qualifying tournament, where eight Portsmouth students competed in Poland, Maine.  The team of Noble and Franas went undefeated, while the Anderson and Horowitz team lost only one of the four rounds. All four will travel to Louisville, Kentucky, over Memorial Day Weekend for the national tournament. Miles Borne and Hailey Venuto will serve as alternates.

“This is the fourth straight year that the Portsmouth debate team has qualified for nationals and will likely be one of a very few New Hampshire teams to be represented," said PHS coach Joe Kraus, an English teacher.

The Portsmouth High School degate team, from left, are coach Joe Kraus, Scarlett Graham, Nikko Koukis, Nile Koukis, Nick Dahlen, Miles Borne, Aadit Noble, Jackson Shackleford, Ben Seibert, Sawyer Schmitt, Emilio Pruna, Ian Franas, Finn Saunders, Adam Hoskin, Charlie Anderson, James Margeson, Hailey Venuto, Anya Bake, Marlon Pinto, Lexi Lambert, Nina Cummins.

In January, 22 Portsmouth students traveled to Boston Latin High School, along with six volunteer judges, to compete with 435 students from more than 30 Massachusetts schools. The 11 PHS pairings won multiple rounds against stiff competition. The teams of Marlon Pinto and Mariam Nada and Yazan Alhamdan and Rithika Rajavel achieved the highest success on the Portsmouth team, each winning the majority of their rounds.

Also recently, Portsmouth hosted a New Hampshire Debate League tournament featuring 30 debaters from three schools. In the team category, Pinto, paired up with a St. Thomas student Owen Coffey, came in third. Noble and Ben Seibert came in second, going undefeated, and Nick Dahlen and Adam Hoskin placed first, also undefeated. In the speaker category, Pinto came in third and Nikko Koukis placed second.

PHS will compete later this month in a two-day debate hosted by Harvard University via video conference. Later in March or in early in April, the New Hampshire Debate League will host a qualifying debate for the annual College Cup National Debate, which is July 4 weekend in Plymouth, Vermont.

If you would like to be a volunteer judge, send an email to steven@consumegov.com.

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Portsmouth High School debate team students qualify for nationals