On Februrary 20th, the Forensics team posted a historic and record-breaking performance, as the first place for nearly every category was taken by WJ students. The Pitch Online talked to Rusty McCrady, the debate and forensics coach, about the team’s victory.
R: What was so special about the team’s win?
M: The Forensics Team’s win on Saturday was not only historic by unprecedented!
R: How would you describe the win?
M: It’s like in wrestling when you pin everyone. It’s like in cross country when you place fifth because your teammates have all of the top spots, but you’re still happy. I generally prefer understatement to overstatement. What I’m writing here is no exaggeration. I have been involved with the Montgomery County Forensics League since 1975, and to my knowledge, Walter Johnson’s victory at Saturday’s final regular season meet at Blake High School was the greatest team victory in the League’s history. To sum it all up, a Walter Johnson High School student took first place in every category. Unprecedented.
Here are the individual results:
Robin Banerji Second Place in Prose
Mariel Berlin-Fischler Third Place in Drama, Sixth Place in Prose
Tianhao He First Place in Informative Speaking
Helena Klassen Fourth Place in Humor, Sixth Place in Children’s Literature
Matt Krug First Place in Drama, Second Place in Poetry
Catherine Liu Second Place in Informative Speaking
Sophie Meade First Place in Poetry, First Place in Prose
Joanna Miller First Place in Extemporaneous Speaking; First Place in Children’s Lit.
Iliana Papanicolaou Second Place in Humor
Eddie Simon First Place in Humor, 8th Place in Prose
Raymond Wright First Place in Persuasive Oratory
In Ensemble Acting, Matt Krug and Joanna Miller won First Place in their section. They performed a scene from Hamlet.
In Readers’ Theater, Matt Krug and Sophie Meade took first in their section with a performance of ‘The Problem” by A.R. Gurney, and Mariel Berlin-Fischler and Joanna Miller took second with their performance of “My Quiet Neighbor” by Ira Brodsky & Barbara Lhota.
