Last Friday, the school’s Debate team won its home tournament with flying colors. Debaters Nick Cohen (‘18) and Matt Grayson (‘18) won 1st place team, Cohen winning 1st place speaker and Grayson, 3rd place speaker.

Varsity programs are ranked by the records of the top three teams for the school’s entire record on that day. The school’s Debate team had three undefeated teams (four wins, zero losses) and achieved a perfect 12-0 record while Bergen Academies earned an 11-1 record. The three undefeated teams include Ben Altschul (‘18) and Nadav Ziv (‘18), Nick Cohen and Matt Grayson, and Ben Tauber (‘18) and Ansh Tandon (‘18). In addition to these teams, debaters Neal Rodin (‘18) and Josh Gole (‘18) had a strong showing at their first Varsity tournament with a 3-1 record.

“I was honored to have won the first place speaker at the first tournament,” said Cohen. “Sometimes when you go to each tournament every other week, it can get tiring. But when we have successes, both as teams and individuals, they reinvigorate that passion we try to bring to every debate.”

Grayson agreed, attesting pride in both himself and his partner. “Being in debate for five years now, it feels awesome to finally win first place at a varsity tournament. It really feels like all our hard work and time put into it has paid off. It was really cool to hear my name called as the third place speaker and even cooler to hear my partner’s name called for first place. It has been an amazing start to the season.”

Following the announcement of the debate results, the school’s debaters were feeling triumphant. “I’m incredibly proud of our strong start to the season and was happy to see how supportive Tenafly students and teachers are of the debate program,” said Ziv.

After this strong first showing, the debaters are hopeful about future debates. “Our wins instill confidence in me and my partner. Our well-deserved win was met with a lot of hard work and preparation. We’re now convinced that we can continue our strong record going forward,” said Altschul.

Congratulations to the Debate team!