On Friday, members of Foothill’s Speech and Debate team departed on a trip to a competition at California State University of Fullerton.

“I think Foothill has always had the reputation as a really good Speech and Debate school, we are not very big, but we consistently do well at tournaments,” senior Ashley Amaladhas said.

Foothill debate entered in two styles of debate, Public Forum and Parliamentary, at two different levels, open and novice. This results in four types of debate: open public forum, novice public forum, open Parliamentary and novice Parliamentary.

Teams of two debaters are guaranteed a number of rounds, five rounds for novice and six rounds for open, but not all teams advance to the next round. In order to advance, teams need to win the majority of their rounds, which could be five, four or even three rounds depending on the number of competitors.

Seniors Karina Cole and Spencer Malone were a team in the novice Parliamentary debate category. First, the team moved on to semifinals, then finals and then won first place for the competition.

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The team of two wins by having their argument beat the other team’s argument during the debate. There are also speaker points, which are based on how well each individual speaks during the debate. Each partner receives different scores for the speaking points.

Junior Bella Bobrow got fifth place for speaker points in novice parliamentary debate.

In the speech section of the tournament, sophomore Sydney Wilkov competed in oratorical interpretation, which involves taking a speech that someone else wrote and then interpreting and performing the speech. Wilkov placed fourth out of 36 competitors. Overall, Wilkov is happy with her performance and feels like she did her best.

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The final Foothill winner was senior Bryn Treloar-Ballard. Treloar-Ballard placed third in expository speaking. This category in speech is an informational speech on a topic of the competitor’s choice. Competitors use posters and other visual aids during their speech.

Amaladhas competed in Parliamentary debate solo, due to her partner suddenly falling ill. Amaladhas also competed in a duo for speech for the first time.

“It was a really exciting tournament and I’m glad I got to be a part of it and go along with my team,” Amaladhas said. “[Debating alone] was definitely a uniquely scary experience but it went well.”

The Foothill speech and debaters were happy with their performance at the Fullerton tournament.

“The team did phenomenally. I’m really proud of everyone, especially the newer people,” Khaila Hartung-Dallas, debate president, said.