December 2025 Accolades

We are sharing Student Accolades from:

Volleyball >> 

Cross Country >>

Debate >>

DC Council Testimony >> 

Volleyball

Congratulations to the GDS Women’s Varsity Volleyball team, who in November, took the 2025 DCSAA State Championship! GDS capped off a dominant postseason run with a 25-15, 25-19, 25-11 victory in the final, showcasing their skill, chemistry, and grit on the court!  Here’s to an incredible season and hard-fought championship! 

–Reported by Brandon Wiest 

Check out more championship game photos here!

Cross Country

In November, fifteen GDS cross country athletes traveled to Cary, North Carolina to compete in the Nike Cross Country Southeast Regional meet (NXR SE). Despite temperatures reaching an unseasonably warm 75 degrees, our athletes performed exceptionally well with highlights including personal best times for Hugo Fine '29, Parker Dunbar '28, Ben Altschuler '28, and Shira Wenthe '27. Our Rising Stars team of 9th and 10th graders finished in 13th place of all the boys teams in the Southeast!

Junior Shira Wenthe re-set her own school record, running 17:50 for the 5km course. She placed 16th in the most competitive championship race of the day! 

This meet caps off a wonderful season in which both our men's and women's teams were among the two fastest in school history. This fall our women captured 1st place in the small school division at the enormous Virginia Showcase meet and were 4th place in both the ISL and DC State Championships! Our men's team also finished 4th in the DC State meet and were able to win the MAC championship!

Congratulations to all!

–Reported by Anthony Belber

Debate 

In early December, a group of ten GDS policy debaters participated in the New York Fall Faceoff to great success! Seniors Emma Renigar '26  and Sam Wood '26 were undefeated in the pre-elimination rounds, meaning they won six debates in a row and qualified to the Tournament of Champions, the end of year national championship! Sophomores Susie Gerety '27 and Annika Kimbrell '27 also completed the preliminaries with a winning record, going 4-2, and just missing the octafinals round. Congratulations to all!

—Reported by Dawn Pierce

DC Council Testimony

High schoolers from Students Against Gun Violence (an arm of the HS Student Action Committee) attended the DC Council Judiciary & Public Safety Committee hearing in early December. 

GDS senior Nate Zia testified in support of the Evidence-Based Gun Violence Reduction and Prevention Act of 2025. He was one of few speakers under the age of 18. 

Please help us congratulate him on a job well done!

See his testimony here.