Grover Cleveland Team Places First in Forensics Competition

Grover Cleveland Middle School brought home three trophies, including first place in the varsity competition, from The New Jersey Drama and Forensics League Interpretive Reading Tournament held earlier this month at at Chatham Middle School.

The Caldwell-West Caldwell middle school sent 11 students to the public speaking competition, including varsity participants eighth graders Megan West, Lydia Wielgus (first place winner), and Roxanne Wilcox and seventh graders Ashvin Nagarajan, Brendan Padover and Oliva Carrara.

Junior varsity participants included sixth graders Julia Tuck, Deanna Meluso, Nicole Tanelli, Jessica Rizzo and Natasha LaChac. LaChac earned third place and Meluso earned fourth place in the junior varsity competition.

More than 120 students from nearly 20 schools, including Chatham, Florham Park, Morristown, Randolph and Bearndsville, participated. The tournament is run and judged by experienced "forensicators" who compete in both speech and debate at either a state or national level.  

“Many months of work went into perfecting these readings,” stated Claudia Douris, teacher and coach, in a release. “Students were up against very capable opponents from a variety of other school districts. They all did a great job.”