Debate duo Soundjata Sharod and Jasmine Wang are steadily improving in the course of this season. With a record 2-4 at the Montgomery Bell Academy tournament and 2-2 at the Lexington tournament, they are working towards gaining bids to the tournament of champions.

Another other varsity debate duo Elena Liao and Roshni Padhi went 3-3 at MBA but only went 1-3 at Lexington.

Labs other varsity duos that went to Lexington are Jordyn Mahome and Alexis Chia, and Audrey Kim and Riya Chada who both went 2-2.  

The Lexington tournament got cut short due to teams not being able to attend because of bad storms blocking flights.

Soundjata Sharod and Jasmine Wang won the Lane Tech varsity debate tournament Dec 14-15. It was a city-wide tournament attracting teams from throughout Chicago, according to Soundjata.

After qualifying for the final round, Soundjata said they won by default because a member of the other team got sick and had to drop out.

“It ended on an unsatisfactory note when they dropped out,” he said. “I would have felt really satisfied if we debated them and won, or even if we lost because I would have learned from my mistakes.”

Soundjata said he hopes he and Jasmine will win a Tournament of Champions bid at Lexington by getting to the elimination rounds.

“MBA showed us we need to work more. When we go to Lex we need to know how to debate ourselves,” Soundjata said before the Lexington tournament. “We hope to go to more elim rounds. That’s the level we want to be on.”