Harker’s middle school speech and debate team, coached by Christopher Thiele, had a successful trip to the Middle School Tournament of Champions in Lexington, Ky., this past weekend. Harker students earned numerous awards at the event, in which 33 schools representing 145 of the best middle school debate/speech entries across 15 states participated.

Policy: First place, Deven Shah, grade 7, and Julia Biswas, grade 8; second place, Andy Lee and Jason Lin, both grade 8; third place, Akshay Manglik and Aditya Tadimeti, both grade 8; and fifth place, Helen Li and Deven Parikh, both grade 8. Manglik got eighth speaker, Lee got fourth speaker, Biswas got third speaker and Shah got first speaker.

Lincoln-Douglas: Akhilesh Chegu and Rishi Jain, both grade 7, and Aditi Vinod, grade 8, all placed fifth. Chegu got eighth speaker, Jain got seventh speaker and Krishay Mukhija, grade 8, got fourth speaker.

Public Forum: Second place, Anshul Reddy and Sascha Pakravan, both grade 7; Reddy got fifth speaker.

Congress: Third place, Andrew Sun, grade 8.

Dramatic Interpretation: First place, Rhea Nanavati; second place, Arusha Patil, both grade 8.

Original Oratory: Fourth place, Arusha Patil, grade 8.

Go Eagles!