The Golden Desert is Spirtos Country
LAS VEGAS, NV – This past weekend, the Entertainment Capital of the World played host to one of the newest tournaments in the country: the Golden Desert Invitational. Congratulations to the Meadows School’s Mike Spirtos and La Reina High School’s Claire Totten for advancing to this tournament’s inaugural final round. On a 4-1 decision, Mike defeated Claire to win the title.
Mike is coached by Dan Meyers. Claire is coached by Liz Harlacher and Alex Smith.
QUARTERS
Meadows MS def. Salt Lake City West BE (Ben Empey)
3-0 (Jay Rye, David Anthony, S. Berselli)
La Reina CT def Foothill CF (Cody Fielder)
3-0 (Jay Rye, David Anthony, S. Berselli)
Alta JO def. Montgomery TV (Tyler Valeska)
3-0 (Alex Smith, Dan Meyers, Matt Kiisel)
Palo Verde JK def. Spring Valley NM (Noah McKay)
3-0 (Alex Smith, Dan Meyers, Matt Kiisel)
SEMIS
Meadows MS def. Palo Verde JK (Jeff Kurr)
3-0 (Alex Smith, David Anthony, Kami Kirk)
La Reina CT def. Alta JO (Jason Ockey)
2-1 (Dan Meyers, Jau Rye, Matt Kissel)
FINALS
Meadows MS def. La Reina CT (Clare Totten)
4-1 (*David Anthony, Kami Kirk, Matt Kiisel, Ribaudo, ?)
CHAMPION
Meadows MS (Mike Spirtos)
Popularity: 2% [?]
test
Posted from: 66.108.84.88
January 22nd, 2007 20:21
Congratulations to Mike and Claire, two very hard-working and humble debaters. Particular congratulations to Mike on his third final round appearance at a bid tournament on this topic.
Posted from: 68.209.198.15
January 22nd, 2007 20:36
SPRITOS
Posted from: 70.170.6.20
January 22nd, 2007 20:37
Congrats to Claire on bid #1.
And a special congrats to Mike on bid #5, going 5/6 at finals bids over the last 13 months, and for finally winning one.
Also congrats to some of the younger TMS kids, especially Amanda and Ivana.
Finally, I just wanted to thank Ted Belch for putting on the the best run tournament I’ve been to all year (except for The Meadows School Battle for the Belt). Every single round was on time and as well judged as possible.
Posted from: 146.115.114.235
January 22nd, 2007 20:59
random question,
obviously each local circuit has its own particular flavor. i.e. the NE tends to be less technical, texas faster, california more progressive (and yes, i know that these are crude stereotypes, but permit them for the sake of the question.) as nevada/southwestern debate emerges as a well defined local circuit, which styles are prevalent/successful?
Posted from: 70.189.208.62
January 22nd, 2007 21:10
This tournament actually broke to partial octas. Four debaters byed in the partial octas (Meadows MS, Foothill CF, Spring Valley NM, and another debater i cant remember). 12 debaters cleared overall; however, I only remember my octas opponent was Meadows AS (Amanda Signorelli sp?).
On another note, congrats to Spirtos. I enjoyed the semis although I lost. Hopefully, I can talk my coach into going to Stanford for another crack at getting a bid.
I’d also like to apologize to Alex Smith because I did tell some people after round 5 that I disagreed with the decision and thought it was illegit. I was upset; however, he judged me during Quarters and Semis and was very helpful with his comments.
Posted from: 69.242.235.139
January 22nd, 2007 21:12
spirtos you beast
Posted from: 66.108.84.88
January 22nd, 2007 21:17
Hi Jeff — as soon as I have the results of partial octas, I’ll put those up as well. I posted what I was sent. Thanks for the heads up.
Posted from: 70.170.6.20
January 22nd, 2007 22:33
From what I can remember from partials:
Palo Verde JK def Meadows AS (Amanda Signorelli)
(Kiisel, *Kirk, Rye)
West BE def College Prep LS (Lily Sadat)
(Meyers, Smith, Jones)
La Riena CT def Meadows IB (Ivana Brancaccio)
(Kiisel, Kirk, Rye)
Alta JO def West AR
(Meyers, Smith, Jones)
I think those are all right. That last one might be wrong. Sorry if that’s the case.
Posted from: 128.135.199.198
January 22nd, 2007 22:47
Lily- nice work.
Posted from: 24.12.175.184
January 22nd, 2007 22:57
Congrats Spirtos!!
Posted from: 71.135.56.52
January 23rd, 2007 00:09
congrats spirit
Posted from: 69.107.88.132
January 23rd, 2007 01:05
way to go amanda!
Posted from: 169.229.77.223
January 23rd, 2007 01:07
Claire deserved this one, if the round I saw of her in at VBT is any indication…nice work!
Congrats, also, to spirtos for the big win. You deserve your success, bro.
On a side note, I don’t know you, Mr. Kurr, but I think it’s really cool of you to be willing to publicly apologize for your actions when you really didn’t have to – you’re hardly the first person to complain about a judge, after all, and I don’t see such comments very often. Props for your fine performance at the tournament, but particularly for that gesture.
~Ankur
Posted from: 69.3.93.154
January 23rd, 2007 16:35
nice job spirit.
Posted from: 71.139.27.178
January 23rd, 2007 18:55
Looks like a great tournament. Sadly I’d already missed too much school to make it out to Nevada but I hope to come next year.
Posted from: 66.90.29.60
January 23rd, 2007 19:27
Congrats to Spirtos for the win and for Claire for doing an amazing job and getting her first bid!!
Posted from: 24.7.65.244
January 23rd, 2007 19:43
i’ve got to hand it to ted belch and lexy green for a fantastically run tournament; while the actual pool of great judges was fairly small (which is certainly not their fault, and which should not be the case next year), they managed to assemble excellent panels in outrounds and put judges in the correct rounds during prelims. the more people who go to this tournament, the better it will get, so go.
Posted from: 199.80.146.83
January 24th, 2007 12:46
Spirtos ahahahah nice job spirt.
i loved dan meyers comment, because they always are informative of everything that has happened.
on bid #5, u have surpassed ur bids from last year and with stanford and berkely BOTH IN NORCAL WHICH SI TRULLY spirtos country, he’ll at worst get those other two to get seven. ahah.
Posted from: 68.196.115.198
January 24th, 2007 13:29
SPIRTOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOS
Posted from: 71.232.110.88
January 24th, 2007 15:30
Congrats Claire on bid # 1!!! Keep it up!!
And, of course, congrats Spirtos on winning!
Posted from: 169.232.243.245
January 25th, 2007 19:08
spirtos is illegit
Posted from: 24.16.141.153
January 30th, 2007 16:48
well done spirtos