Middle school speech and debate team has busy, productive first semester

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Harker’s middle school speech and debate team has already competed at nine tournaments across three states (California, Illinois and Texas), with some great results. More than 125 Harker students competed in at least one tournament, and our middle schoolers compete primarily against high school students, so successes are especially sweet!

Presentation High School (San Jose)

From Oct. 6-8, 50 schools across three states representing 198 entries competed in public forum and Lincoln-Douglas debate. Thirty-one Harker middle school students competed and the following awards were earned.

JV Public Forum Speaker Awards

3rd – Connor Wilcox, grade 8

4th – Vienna Parnell, grade 8

JV Lincoln-Douglas Speaker Awards

1st – Karoun Kaushik​, grade 8

3rd – Alex Lan, grade 7

4th – Ayan Nath, grade 8

Intramural No. 1 (Harker Middle School)

On Oct. 10, about 79 Harker middle school students competed in six distinct events and received the following awards.

Policy Debate (Workshop)

1st – Mir Bahri, grade 7, and Saanvi Arora, grade 8

Lincoln-Douglas

1st – Harsh Deep, grade 8

Lincoln-Douglas Speaker Awards

1st – Brian Chen, grade 7

Public Forum

1st – Rohan Thakur and Rohan Rashingkar, both grade 8

Public Forum Speaker Awards

1st – Ysabel Chen, grade 8

2nd – Muzzi Khan, grade 7

3rd – Rohan Thakur, grade 8

4th – Stephen Xia, grade 7

Congress (Workshop)

1st – Dhruv Saoji, grade 8

Speech (Impromptu)

1st-  Zubin Khera, grade 7

Intro (6th Graders Only)

1st – Reza Jalil, grade 6

2nd – Arjun Moogimane, grade 6

Intro Speaker Awards (6th Graders Only)

1st – Panav Gogte, grade 6

2nd – Angelina Zhu, grade 6

​California State University Fullerton (Los Angeles)

On Oct.13-15, 58 schools from across four states representing 560 entries competed in all speech and debate events. Forty-five Harker middle school students competed and many earned awards.

Novice Policy

3rd – Keya Mann and Saanvi Arora, both grade 8 (semifinalists)

5th – Sarah Mohammed and Tiffany Chang, both grade 7 (quarterfinalists, walked over)

Novice Policy Speaker Awards

7th – Saanvi Arora, grade 8

8th – Keya Mann, grade 8

9th – Sarah Mohammed, grade 7

MS Lincoln-Douglas Speaker Awards

9th – Rahul Santhanam, grade 7

10th – Jason Monaghan, grade 6

Novice Public Forum

3rd – Rohan Rashingkar and Rohan Thakur, with grade 8 (semifinalists)

Novice Public Forum Speaker Awards

1st – Rohan Thakur, grade 8 (top middle schooler)

24th – Rohan Rashingkar, grade 8 (second middle schooler)

29th – Lexi Nishimura, grade 7 (third middle schooler)

Varsity Public Forum Speaker Awards

11th – Sascha Pakravan, grade 8

Middle School Congress

3rd – Riyaa Randhawa, grade 8

Varsity Thematic Interpretation

3rd – Gwen Yang, grade 7

Varsity Original Intrepretation

Unranked – Cecilia Yang, grade 6 (top middle schooler)

Varsity Informative Speaking

2nd – Nila Dharmaraj, grade 6 (top middle schooler)

Varsity Dramatic Interpretation

Unranked – Cecilia Yang, grade 6 (top middle schooler)

Novice Humorous Interpretation

5th – Laurie Jin, grade 7

Middle School Impromptu Speaking

5th – Michelle Jin, grade 7

7th – Ayan Nath, grade 8

Varsity Duo Interpretation

Unranked – Laurie Jin and Trisha Variyar, both grade 7 (top middle schoolers)

St. Marks (Dallas)

On Oct. 14-6, 122 schools across 22 states representing 288 of the best debate entries in the country competed. Five Harker middle school students competed in Lincoln-Douglas debate.

Notre Dame/Harvard-Westlake (Los Angeles)

On Nov. 4-6, 56 schools across 10 states representing 212 entries competed in Lincoln-Douglas and policy debate. Nine Harker middle school students competed and received the following awards.

Varsity Lincoln-Douglas

17th – Anshul Reddy, grade 8 (double-octofinalist)

Damien HS (Los Angeles)

On Nov. 11-12, 29 schools across four states representing 94 entries competed in debate events. Fifteen Harker middle school students competed.

Intramural No. 2 (Harker Middle School)

On Nov. 15, about 49 Harker middle schools students competed in three distinct events and received the following awards.

Public Forum

1st – Deeya Viradia and Carol Wininger, both grade 7

Top 6th graders – Arjun Gurjar and Krishna Mysoor, both grade 6

Public Forum Speaker Awards

1st – Nika Lebedev, grade 7

2nd – Arjun Gurjar, grade 6

3rd – Rupert Chen, grade 7

Speech (Impromptu)

1st – Angela Gao, grade 8

Intro (6th Graders Only)

1st – Emma Gao, grade 6

2nd – Divya Venkat, grade 6

Intro Speaker Awards (6th Graders Only)

1st – Kabir Buch, grade 6

2nd – Emma Gao, grade 6

Santa Clara University No. 1 (Santa Clara)

From Nov. 17-9, 104 schools across three states representing 1,692 entries competed in all speech and debate events. Approximately 110 Harker students competed (about 90 were middle school students), and a few received the following awards.

Varsity Public Forum

17th – Sascha Pakravan and Ayan Nath, both grade 8

Varsity Public Forum Speaker Awards

6th – Sascha Pakravan, grade 8

Novice Public Forum

9th – Deeya Viradia and Carol Wininger, both grade 7 (octofinalist)

9th – Arjun Barrett, grade 7, and Ansh Sheth, grade 6 (octofinalist)

Novice Public Forum Speaker Awards

18th – Krishna Misoor, grade 6

Novice Thematic Interpretation

3rd – Zubin Khera, grade 7

Glenbrooks (Chicago)

From Nov. 18-20, 307 schools across 37 states representing 1,628 entries competed in all speech and debate events. Four Harker middle school students competed. Congrats to all the participants and many thanks to Christopher Thiele, middle school speech and debate teacher!

Go speech and debate Eagles!

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