On a beautiful and sunny Saturday morning of April 12, high school students from the Chesapeake District of Maryland clamored into the cafeteria at Catonsville High School to compete for one of three spots to the National Forensic League National tournament. Schools with long standing reputations in policy debater were there: Good Counsel, Loyola-Blakefield, Hereford, Catonsville, and other area schools. BUDL schools were also represented in full force; Forest Park, Carver, Patterson, Walbrook, and City College were all in attendance and were all battling for these coveted spots!

This event spanned two days and was set up in the form of a sudden death double elimination round tournament. The qualifying teams had to survive a grueling two-day competitive tournament, with numerous high stakes rounds and panels of judges. Securing one of the three coveted spots to the road to nationals are debaters from City College Lawrence Grandpre and Fernando Kirkman, both juniors. Walbrook's Ciara Scruggs and Regina Summers had an incredible tournament, being on of the select few making it to the second day of competition losing on a 2-1 decision to a very talented team from Loyola Blakefield. Walbrook junior Regina Summers described her opponents as “very good debaters … it was a very close round but I’m definitely excited and proud of my performance.' Watch out everyone: Regina and Ciara are both juniors. Next year, they both plan to be back with a vengeance!

The first day featured a high level competition among talented debaters. First day competition was a great success for the energetic duo from Forest Park Cedric Bradley and Nyasha Felder who made it all the way to the fourth round just short of making it to the second day. Cedric, a senior from Forest Park, stated: "I am really excited about making it all the way to round four, although I would I liked to [have] qualified for the tournament…I am proud of my partner [Nyasha Felder] and I for doing as well as we did." Also making it to the fourth round club were: Walbrook's Jerrell Anderson and Robert Kinslow, City College’s Christy Melton and Laketia Watson, and sisters Janae and Lisa McGraw.

This was a great tournament and congratulations and GOOD LUCK to Lawrence and Fernando for making it to the final three! And congratulations to Walbrook, Forest Park and City College for a successful tournament.