Ethan Zhao ’26

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2024 opened with massive successes for Strake Jesuit Debate. In total, the team accumulated 55 bids to the most exclusive national-circuit tournament in the nation, 47 qualifiers to the competitive state competition, and 9 qualifiers to the National Speech and Debate Association (NSDA) Nationals tournament across three different divisions. These achievements are unparalleled by any other program, providing for Jesuit’s domination on both the state and national circuits. 

In January, the team won a total of 5 competitions. Most notably, Daniel Guo ‘25 / Jason Zhao ‘25 championed at the Sunvitinational tournament in Florida out of more than 75 Public Forum (PF) teams. Ethan Zhao ‘26 / Mac Stratton ‘26 won the UH tournament in PF, Kelvin Meng ‘26 placed 1st at the Churchill Classic in LD (Lincoln Douglas), Winston Wu ‘26 / Campbell Haire ‘25 championed the Cy Falls tournament in PF, and Rohan Chimata ‘26 won Hastings in Lincoln Douglass (LD). At the prestigious Barkley Forum at Emory University, Jason Zhao ‘25 won the 1st place speaker position out of 276 competitors. 

In February, the team debated at some of the most competitive tournaments, but despite difficulties, the team emerged victorious. At the NSDA South Texas District Tournament, Strake won sweepstakes and secured recognition as the Leading Chapter from 2012-2023. Our qualifiers for the National Tournament were: Samuel Rubinstein ’26, Ayaan Singh ’26, and Michael Meng ’26 in LD, Luke Holmes ’25 / Finney Haire ‘25 and Daniel Guo ’25 / Jason Zhao ‘25 in PF, and Justin Wen ’25 / John Yates ’25 in Policy. Further, the team sent 50 competitors to the prestigious Harvard University tournament where Daniel Guo ‘25 / Jason Zhao ‘25 co-championed the exclusive Round Robin and Nathan Wei ‘24 made Semifinals. The duo of Sumith Murthy ‘27 / Nathan Hadi ‘27 succeeded in attaining a Silver TOC Bid at the tournament, an impressive achievement for new Freshmen debaters. 

In March, the team competed at the Texas State tournament, winning 9th place in sweepstakes and an award for our high number of qualifiers out of dozens of schools and hundreds of entries. Nathan Wei ‘24 impressively championed in LD, becoming the 6th Jesuit competitor to do so, continuing the school’s legacy of success at the tournament. He also won 2nd place speaker while Justin Wen ‘25 won 3rd place speaker and Semifinaled. Further, Ethan Zhao ‘26 / Mac Stratton ‘26 made it to the Semifinals in the PF division. Overall, 28 competitors made it to elimination rounds across 3 divisions!

In April, even as the season began to come to a close, Jesuit debaters were still able to win. Justin Wen ‘25 won the exclusive and invitational King Round Robin in LD while Ethan Zhao ‘26 / Mac Stratton ‘26 made it to Quarterfinals in PF. Coming up, the team will round out the season by competing at the nationally-acclaimed Tournament of Champions in Kentucky and NSDA Nationals in Des Moines.