Kingswood Oxford Debaters Place Third in Large Tournament at Hotchkiss

In an unusually large debate contest at The Hotchkiss School on Dec. 2, Kingswood Oxford’s team placed third out of 18 schools and also brought home several other top honors.

KO’s third-place finish in the parliamentary extemporaneous tournament resulted from the combined outstanding performances of the advanced team (Mark Toubman ’13, Keenan Line ‘14, Matthew Kahn ‘13, Mike Hathaway ‘13) and the novice team ((Reilly Callahan ‘15, Emily Lowit ‘15, Cole Adams ’15, Katie Smith ’15).

In addition, Hathaway placed second out of more than 120 individual speakers in the advanced division, and Adams and Smith were the #2 pair out of 60 pairs in the novice division.

More than 300 people competed at the DANEIS event, according to Kathy Lynch, moderator of KO’s Forensic Union team and chair of the English Department. DANEIS stands for Debating Association of New England Independent Schools.

Nurturing confident public speakers is a critical part of KO’s mission; for information about enrollment or the next Open House for prospective students on Sunday, Jan. 6, 2013, contact admissions@k-o.org.