Monte Vista Seniors Finish 1st in the State at Speech & Debate Championships

seniors Gabe Bronshteyn and Brian Jue finished first in the state in their respective events at the 54th annual California High School Speech Association’s State Championships April 27-29 at Lowell HS in San Francisco.  

Bronshteyn went undefeated through eight rounds of competition in Lincoln-Douglas Debate, a one-on-one debate event in which students debate moral or philosophical resolutions, to capture Monte Vista’s first state title in the category. 

This year’s tournament topic was "Resolved:  Targeted killing is a morally permissible foreign policy tool." 

Bronshteyn defeated a Bellarmine College Preparatory School debater in the final round on a 5-2 decision.  

Jue captured first in the state as Presiding Officer in Congress, an event in which students debate legislation in a mock congress setting.  The presiding officers are in charge of running the round.  Jue faced off with a Miramonte presiding officer in the final round of congress. The winner was determined by a combined vote of the 10 judges and 14 final round competitors.  Jue captured 17 of the 24 votes in the finals to win. This marked the fifth straight year that a Monte Vista student has won the state tournament as presiding officer.

Other Monte Vista students who placed well:  

• Karna Adam: second place Congress
• Michael Lim and Brandan Tang:  second place Duo Interpretation
• Vinayek Ganeshan: seventh place Foreign Extemporaneous Speaking, ninth Place Lincoln-Douglas Debate    

At the awards ceremony, long time Monte Vista Speech and Debate Director David Matley was inducted into the California Speech Association Hall of Fame.

-Monte Vista High School