After fierce competition with Cerritos, South Orange County and Point Loma Nazarene University, forensics team’s first-year members Rick Perez and Daisy Kim earned first place honors at the Spring Championship in Pasadena.

With only 15 minutes to prepare for their debate, Perez and Kim defeated most of the teams in the tournament.

The victory was notable because the pair not only won nine out of 10 debates, but also won the last one.

For Perez and Kim, proving themselves against such teams was good preparation for the state championships.

“It was a real big confidence booster, especially because we are going to the state championships in a week,” Perez said.

For team members who are returning from the fall semester, the last tournament was a chance to sharpen their performance skills.

It also gave them the opportunity to join forces with other teammates that they may have not been partnered up with.

Perez said that he gave a lot of credit to his teammate, Kim, for her hard work and dedication.

“Daisy and I just really started to click in that debate,” Perez said.

The pair also did well in other events individually, by becoming finalists, with Kim in impromptu speaking and Perez in extemporaneous speaking.

“The team is really proud of them, especially since they beat Point Loma College, which is a four-year college,” assistant coach Jel Samar said.

The team battled against such notable opponents as UCLA and Cal State Long Beach, coach Mark Crossman said.

“It is El Camino competing against UCLA and CSULB. It was a hard tournament,” he said.

Other team members, like senior team member John Suzuki, also earned high honors by placing second in his division for impromptu speaking.

“I wasn’t really expecting to get any ranking at all,” Suzuki said.

He said he was surprised in being recognized for his excellent performance.

Although the team is proud of its performance at the tournament in Pasadena, everyone is already looking forward to the last battles of the season.

The next competition at Cal State Northridge, April 8-11, will be sponsored by the National Parliamentary Debate Association (NPDA).

It will include teams that range from Ivy League schools, such as Harvard to local universities, like USC.

With their sights set on these final championship events, Crossman said that the team’s goal is to aim high and be listed as one of the top 10 teams in the nation.

Crossman said that he believes the team has done well in the past year and he hopes to advance the team into more competitive territory.

He said he is already selecting individuals for next season.

“It’s been a good year and I think the events will go well for us and that we are going to be somewhere in the first ten places,” Crossman said.