Traveling from the sunny South Florida weather to the snowy, frigid temperatures of Boston, the Speech and Debate team competed in the Harvard National Speech and Debate Tournament Feb. 14-18.
Students competed in their preliminary rounds Saturday, Feb. 15. Traveling by subway, they spent the day on the Harvard campus, walking through the ice and snow to attend their rounds. Elimination rounds were set to begin Sunday morning; however, bad weather conditions postponed the timings until noon.
After elimination rounds on Sunday and Monday, three students achieved first place with various others advancing.
The results are as follows:
Varsity Public Forum Debate
- Juniors Ethan Chen and Aaron Pinto – triple octafinalists
Middle School Public Forum Debate
- Eighth graders Shyam Muhunthan and Sanjay Singh – triple octafinalists
Varsity Lincoln-Douglas Debate
- Junior Zayn Charania – quarterfinalist
- Junior Justin Xia – octafinalist
- Senior Chloe Wolf – double octafinalist
- Freshman Conan Matos – triple octafinalist
- Junior Juley Guan – triple octafinalist
- Senior Jessica Wong – quadruple octafinalist
Original Oratory
- Sophomore Arisa Porter – octafinalist
- Freshman Tanush Sajja – double octafinalist
- Senior Veer Roy – double octafinalist
Duo Interpretation
- Senior Jaimee Canalejo and sophomore Izyk Pombar – 3rd
- Junior Anagha Iyer and senior Medha Balaji – quarterfinalists
- Freshmen Uma Hedge and Tanush Sajja – octafinalists
Junior Varsity Congressional Debate
- Freshman Archith Venkat – 1st
- Sophomore Susana Regueira – semifinalist
- Sophomore Maximilliam Eckert – semifinalist
- Freshman Ian Chen – semifinalist
Dramatic Interpretation
- Junior Sasha-Kay Lindo – 1st
Humorous Interpretation
- Senior Jaimee Canalejo – 1st
- Sophomore Izyk Pombar – octafinalist
Impromptu Speaking
- Freshman Tanush Sajja – quarterfinalist
Informative Speaking
- Senior Veer Roy – quarterfinalist
- Junior Lindsay Brasner – quarterfinalist
Program of Oral Interpretation
- Junior Sasha-Kay Lindo – 3rd
- Senior Talia Grenier – 5th
- Senior Medha Balaji – quarterfinalist
“Overall, we did very well. We brought a record number of people on this trip, and the results were great,” debate coach Spencer Orlowski said. The team is now preparing for the upcoming National Qualifier and Varsity State competitions.
In temperatures of below freezing, students battled snow, rain, wind and ice to get to their rounds, marking a sharp contrast from the hot Florida weather. (Photo/Spencer Orlowski)
