February 4, 2010- The Jersey Urban Debate League is special in that it offers debate from the 5th grade through college. Over the past two weekends, debaters from middle school, high school, and Rutgers University have competed in the league's public forum, Lincoln-Douglas, and Policy debate divisions. For the high school students it's been an intense preparation for this weekend's Newark Invitational.

To start, two weekends ago middle school students competed at West Side High School, high school debaters competed at Columbia University, and Rutgers University competed at the United States Naval Academy.

At the 10th Annual Columbia University Invitational tournament 11 Lincoln-Douglas debaters and 2 Public Forum teams from Science Park and University High School competed in five rounds of debate. In the Novice LD division Aaliyah Lewis received 5th place out of 80 speakers. In Varsity, Carlos Astacio received 21st place, Elijah Smith received 23rd place, and Muta Mashack received 24th place out of 110 speakers, winning four rounds.

At the 53rd Annual United States Naval Academy Debate Tournament in Annapolis, Maryland from Jan. 23-25, Rutgers University sent 1 varsity and 1 JV team. Both teams had losing records, but Kevin Cenac placed 13th speaker in the JV division.

Last weekend, high school students competed at Emory University and Brooklyn Technical High School. At Emory University, 1 Science Park debate team, 1 Science Park LD debater, and 2 University LD debaters competed at the Barkley Forum debate tournament. Elijah Smith of University High School cleared to quarterfinals placing him in the top 8 Lincoln Douglas debaters in the U.S. Smith dropped in quarters at Emory on a 3-0 decision to Glenbrook North HS in Illinois. The other two LD debaters had winning records.

Finally, at Brooklyn Technical High School 8 JV and 20 novice teams from 8 schools competed. American History and Technology placed in the top 5. This weekend will bring the top debaters to Newark league caps off the month with its annual Newark Invitational tournament.

The Newark Invitational is the crown of a tremendous 3 week stretch for the JUDL, kicking off February with one of the east coast's premiere debate tournaments.