Grace Debate and Mock Trial Make History

It was a landmark season for Grace’s competitive academic teams, with both Debate and Mock Trial achieving historic milestones this spring.

At the New York State Debate Championship at Bronx Science, Grace came away with not one but two State Champion titles. Two Grace teams took home first place: Fin F. ’28 and Henri F. ’28 in the Intermediate division, and Avery O. ’28 and Georges L. ’28 in the Novice division. To get there, both teams navigated a grueling double-day tournament, winning late-night preliminaries on Saturday before returning to Bronx Science the next morning and advancing through five elimination rounds to claim first place. Grace had other strong showings as well: Ophelia S. ’28 and Vienna V. ’28 advanced to the first elimination round at the Varsity level, finishing among the top 17 Varsity teams in the state, while teams Caiden S. ’28 and Sydney O. ’28 and Nkosi Z. ’28 and Alex G. ’28 all finished the preliminary rounds of the Novice-level competition with winning records.Impressive on their own, these accomplishments are made even more remarkable by the fact that this is the debate team’s first year having a HS debate coach on the faculty. Emma Golden was appointed in 2025, a decision driven by Grace students’ interest in Public Forum Debate and one designed to build on the strength of the middle school debate program. 

Meanwhile, the Mock Trial team made history of their own, qualifying for the New York City Regional Semifinals for the first time in the school’s history—a remarkable achievement for a team with limited hours of classroom preparation. Competing against more than 350 schools statewide, Grace defeated the Urban Assembly School in the first round before facing Lycée Français de New York in a round marked by sharp objections, hard-fought arguments, and courtroom decorum. Though the team fell in the semifinals, the season was a clear sign of things to come for a program fiercely led by Ms. Grafton.

Congratulations to all of our debaters and mock trial competitors on an extraordinary year!