Harker middle school speech and debate team members competed at three tournaments in three states – California, Georgia and Texas – in April and early May.

In April, at the National Debate Coaches Association National Championship in Atlanta, 166 entries from 102 schools across 26 states competed. Harker had two middle school entrants and a few upper school entrants.

Also in April, 10 middle and upper school Harker students competed at the St. Marks Novice Round Up in Dallas. A dozen schools were represented. Results are below.

Novice Policy

1st – Deven Shah and Andy Lee, grades 8 and 9, respectively, went undefeated with a perfect 19-0 ballot count.

Novice Policy Speaker Awards

1st – Andy Lee

2nd – Deven Shah

6th – Ansh Sheth, grade 6

On May 7, approximately 40 Harker middle schools students competed against each other in two distinct intramural debate events in preparation for the Middle School Tournament of Champions Nationals, and earned the following awards:

Lincoln-Douglas

1st – Rahul Santhanam, grade 7

2nd – Brian Chen, grade 7

Public Forum

1st – Sriram Bhimaraju and Arjun Gurjar, both grade 6  (3-0)

2nd – Adam Sayed and Sathvik Chundru, both grade 6 (3-0)

Public Forum Speaker Awards

1st – Sascha Pakravan, grade 8

2nd – Carol Wininger, grade 7

3rd – Ansh Sheth, grade 6

4th – Ayan Nath, grade 8

5th – Deeya Viradia, grade 7

In early May, Harker speech and debate team members attended the middle school TOC at the University of Kentucky, in Lexington.

At the event, 232 of the best middle school speech and debate students from 35 schools competed. Overall, Harker had great success across all events. Harker won the First Place Sweepstakes Team Award for best middle school speech and debate team in the country.

Harker students won the following awards, competing against some of the best middle school teams in the country:

Policy

1st – Deven Shah and Mir Bahri, grade 7, undefeated, 20-0 ballot count

5th – Saanvi Arora, grade 8, and Sarah Mohammed, grade 7

Policy Speaker Awards

2nd – Deven Shah

18th – Mir Bahri

Lincoln-Douglas

2nd – Anshul Reddy, grade 8

3rd – Alexander Lan, grade 7

5th – Akhilesh Chegu, grade 8

5th – Arnav Dani, grade 8

9th – Brian Chen, grade 7

Lincoln-Douglas Speaker Awards

1st – Akhilesh Chegu, grade 8

3rd – Krish Maniar, grade 7

4th – Anshul Reddy, grade 8

Public Forum

1st – Sascha Pakravan and Ayan Nath

2nd – Krishna Mysoor, grade 7, and Ansh Sheth

5th – Arnav Jain and Rohan Rashingkar, both grade 8

17th – Michelle Jin and Lexi Nishimura, both grade 7

Public Forum Speaker Awards

8th – Sascha Pakravan

10th – Ayan Nath

13th – Lexi Nishimura

15th – Michelle Jin

Congress

6th – Riyaa Randhawa, grade 8

Program Oral Interpretation

2nd – Zubin Khera, grade 7