Stars of the Southwest Championships

This weekend MHS4N6 competed at its first regional, more national style tournament of the season. The Southwestern Championships (hosted by Arizona State University) were attended by 43 schools from 6 different states. Despite the new competition, the results didn't change much for Mesquite; it was simply another day at the office. This tournament also came with an added perk and incentive to many, highly coveted Tournament of Champions bids, and NIETOC (Individual Event TOC) bids.

As is now the established norm, MHS Congress didn't mind the additional competition or the unusual format of sessions as Eric Liang and Michael Ippolito were both

finalists and placed in the top 16. However, MHS did receive its first ever TOC debate bid as Michael Ippoltio took 3rd overall in Congress and got his first bid to the annual national tournament. MHS is attending one more qualifying tournament at Harvard where another bid can be gained.

Mesquite also sent two Public Forum teams to compete at ASU and both continued their amazingly successful seasons. The team of Eric Liang and Mitchell Dyer broke to Double Octafinals (top 32) and Dyer received an award for the 8th best speaker out of the 100+ individuals in public forum. The team of Gina Mo and Sona Shahbazian made Octofinals (top 16) and were one victory short of their TOC bid. In addition, Gina Mo also received an award for the 4th best overall speaker in public forum.

The speech team of MHS Speech and Debate needs further recognition as

this was arguably their best collective performance of the year. Alexa Curran

continued her dominance and cruised to her fourth consecutive 1st place finish in Dramatic Interpretation. Alexa Curran obtained her 2nd bid to NIETOC in San Francisco. Better than one first place finish is two, and Curran followed her phenomenal DI performance with a first place finish in Prose Interpretation. Mollie Moreno also had her first final of the season and took 5th in Prose. Prose was not the only speech event where Mesquite had multiple finalists.

MHS Extemp placed a record three competitors in finals.

Nicole Fisher, Michael Ippolito, and first time finalist Katherine

Wu all were among the Top 6 extempers earning bids to the Extemp Tournament of Champions at Northwestern in May. Success doesn't end with extemp; in the realm of Expository Speaking, Gabby Luu finaled for the second time in her rookie season and took 2nd overall. Kevin Tian also continued to dominate the metaphorical airwaves finishing 5th overall in Radio Broadcasting. Finally, in impromptu, Nicole Fisher took 2nd overall and Michael Ippolito took 4th overall, capping another successful tournament.

Despite only sending 13 students to compete, with less than 30 entries, MHS was among the top of the sweepstakes point total and in a dead heat race for a Top 5 placing. Regardless, this guaranteed top 8 finish shows that the quality of MHS4N6 can triumph over the quantity of others. Looking ahead, some members of Mesquite will be competing next weekend at Valley Christian, while the majority of the team prepares for the Central Bobcat Bonanza on February 3-4.

Rampaging at Red Mountain

This past weekend at the Lost Dutchman Invitation at Red Mountain High School, MHS4N6 started off 2012 right where they left off in 2011: a string of dominance.

Mesquite's success began early Friday with Congressional Debate as two Wildcats won their individual houses. Both Eric Liang and Michael Ippolito took first in their respective houses; for Eric, it is his second consecutive win in Congress as he builds a massive amount of momentum for ASU and this was Michael's first Congress win. Nicole Fisher continued her successful consistency and finished 3rd bringing home some hardware as

well.

In speech and interpretation events Alexa Curran continued her reign as the best Dramatic Interper on the Arizona circuit taking first in Dramatic Interp for the 3rd tournament in a row. Alexa also finished 3rd in prose, marking her 3rd top 3 finish in a row. Taylor Rae Humbert also broke in Dramatic Interp along with Amalia Moreno capping another strong showing by MHS Interp. Amalia was also a semi-finalist in Prose, making this tournament a double break for her. MHS Extemp continued it's success with Nicole Fisher and Eric Liang making semi-finals as well. Kevin Tian placed for the second consecutive time in Radio Broadcasting taking 4th overall and was a semi-finalist in lower impromptu, marking his second tournament in a row with double breaking.

In the always expanding world of NFL ranks, points, and degrees, all of which are necessary for MHS4N6 to compete at National Qualifer tournaments, Red Mountain proved to be a nice milestone setting event. Michael Ippolito eclipsed 1000 points and earned a degree of Outstanding Distinction. Nicole Fished eclipsed 750 points and earned her degree of Superior Distinction . Mollie Moreno and Cynthia Tran also earned their Degrees of Honor. Mesquite gets to enjoy a week off before preparing to compete at the Arizona State University Tournament in two weeks, which will be the largest tournament of the year thus far with Tournament of Champions bids up for grabs.

Winning at Winter Trophy

The entire first semester had built up to December 2nd and 3rd at McClintock High School for 5A Winter Trophy and MHS4n6 put on arguably the best performance of their existence. Mesquite collected an unprecedented 14 trophies from just 34 entries and took 6th overall with 128 sweepstakes points.

Speech was led by the seniors doing their business as usual. Alexa Curran once again dominated the scene and took home two 1st place trophies by winning both Dramatic Interp and Prose. Nicole Fisher was also a double finalist and took 2nd in Extemp, giving the reigning Glenbrooks winner all he could handle. Nicole also finaled in impromptu for the second straight tournament taking 4th overall.



Leading the Juniors was Michael Ippolito who finally got over the semi-final struggles to take 6th in extemp. Impromptu smiled warmly on Mesquite again as Michael took home a first place trophy for the second consecutive tournament. MHS Speech also saw two more competitors qualify for Harvard as Cassandra Sunga and Katherine Wu both broke to semi-finals for the second consecutive tournament. Sophomore Kevin Tian also made a major splash by taking 2nd overall in Radio Broadcasting for his first ever finals appearance. In Expository, freshman Gabby Luu showed everyone in 5A her talent and took 4th overall for her first ever top 6 placing. Other notable first time breakers were Lazarus Tate who broke with his debut humor interpretation and Mollie Moreno who was a semi-finalist in dramatic interp.

Debate really was about two men and their partnership and how they made more Mesquite High history. The team of Eric Liang and Mitchell Dyer took their second tournament of the year and won in varsity Public Forum Debate going 7-1 for the entire tournament. To add to the prestige, Eric also won his Congress house, becoming the first Wildcat to do that as well. Not to be outdone, Mitchell Dyer took 4th in his house as well. Rounding out an on-the-rise-Congress program, Nicole Fisher and Michael Ippolito both took 2nd in their respective houses and Cassandra Sunga earned 5th place honors in her second time ever doing the event.

Mesquite can relax and relish in the success from Winter Trophy and enjoy a break for school finals and the Christmas holiday before getting ready for Red Mountain Jan 6th and 7th. The topics have changed but the dedication level and commitment to excellence has not as MHS4n6 continues to rise up and spread their voices throughout Arizona.

Add it to the Wall of Fame- Alber & Nicole spotlighted in NFL Alumni Magazine!

After being named the top teacher in Arizona by AZTeen Magazine, the National Forensics League was eagerly knocking at MHS4N6's door to learn more. The result was an article in Fall 2011 NFL Alumni magazine.

On pages twelve through thirteen, two in depth interviews feature Mrs. Alber and Nicole. The article discusses how MHS4N6 has grown from a virtually nonexistent club to a reputable team on the circuit.

Be sure to check it out here:

http://www.nflonline.org/uploads/Alumni/2011FallNFLAlumni.pdf

Dominating Dobson

The Dobson Invitational provided an excellent chance for MHS4N6 to carpe diem, and show improvement from the Mountain View Toro Country Classic. Dobson brought new successes and hopes for what is looking to be the most promising season in MHS Speech and Debate history.

Beginning in debate, MHS continues to develop into a Congress power house, placing another 4 students. Mitchell Dyer placed 4th in his house, and Nicole Fisher along with Michael Ippolito placed 5th in their respective houses. Eric Liang continued his impressive congress season and finished 3rd in his house, bringing home some top 3 hardware. In public forum, Mariana Loureiro and Kevin Tian, Sona Shahbazian and Gina Mo, and Aubrey Young and Michael Ippolito broke to octo-finals. Unfortunately, due to the way the bracket settled, two Mesquite teams were scheduled to hit each other. Ippolito- Young advanced due to higher seeding, but both Shahbazian and Mo received their Harvard qualification.

Continuing to speech, Lazarus Tate broke for the first time in his Speech career, and was a semi-finalist in Radio Broadcasting. Gabby Luu also advanced to semi-finals with her impressive first performances in Expository Address. MHS Extemp made its strongest showing ever breaking 5 out of 6 entries to semi-finals: Nicole Fisher, Mitchell Dyer, Cassandra Sunga, Katherine Wu, and Michael Ippolito all advanced. For Dyer, Wu and Sunga, it was their first time breaking in extemp. Unfortunately, taking the next step to finals proved to be an issue and is something all will be sure to work on before Winter Trophy in two weeks. Finally, impromptu was extremely generous to Mesquite and two members finaled. In Dobson's famous impromptu tourney, Nicole Fisher placed 6th overall out of over 70 students, and Michael Ippolito won the event, finishing first for the first time in his career with MHS4N6.

Overall, Mesquite finished sixth in total sweepstakes points. Mesquite will be getting ready for Winter Trophy in two weeks and looking to add to the prestige of what has already been a phenomenal season.

Making Magic at Mountain View

In the first all-team tournament of the year, Mesquite began with a bang. Overall MHS4N6 took 6th out of the 34 teams present and was just 2 sweepstakes points away from cracking the top 5. On another team note, Mesquite was also awarded best Congressional legislation for a Resolution to Withdraw From the United Nations.

This tournament also saw amazing beginnings by several freshman. In the debuts of their Dramatic Interps, Cynthia Tran and Taylor Rae Humbert both made it to semi-finals and got their 4N6 careers off to an amazing start. Cynthia also continued her strong performance in Congress by taking 8th in house 1 and Riley Waechter finished 7th in Senate.

On the varsity level, many returning competitors brought their A game as well. In Public Forum the teams of Mitchell Dyer and Eric Liang as well as the tandem of Gina Mo and Sona Shahbazian both made it to quarter finals and Eric also placed 4th overall in Congressional Senate. Mitchell Dyer broke to Super Senate as well. Staying with Congress, Nicole Fisher took 5th overall in House for the second consecutive tournament and earned her qualifications for Harvard. Moving to speech, Alexa Curran began her final season in stellar fashion finishing 2nd in Prose and winning Dramatic Interp. In Radio Broadcasting Kevin Tian and Mariana Loureiro both made it to semi finals in their first times trying the event. Extemp and Impromptu treated Michael Ippolito well as he semi finaled in extemp and took 6th overall in impromptu in addition to finishing 7th overall in Senate.

A final note, MHS4N6 welcomes its newest official NFL member in Cynthia Tran and congratulates Eric Liang and Michael Ippolito on achieving their Triple Ruby awards for reaching 750 points during their tenure as well as Cassandra Sunga and Katherine Wu who earned their first ruby awards for reaching 250 points.

Mesquite looks to build off of the momentum from Mountain View and take it to Dobson's Tournament coming up November 18 and 19.

Someburros Fundraiser

Next Wednesday, Nov 2nd, is a great opportunity for all of our followers to support the MHS4n6 team by attending our fundraiser at Someburros! Bring a flyer and take your family!

https://docs.google.com/document/d/196MEemcrvYkAgUt0nJdzcdO_pSw6-cJHDxIQ2YnTAx0/edit