From March 2^nd to March 3^rd, the Speech and Debate team competed at the state tournament in Toledo. Qualifying to the state tournament in the first place is an impressive feat in of itself. In order to pre-qualify, you need to earn four or more “bids”, which you earn by placing among the top few debaters at a tournament. For instance, Public Forum head captain Akshat Chowksey ‘18 has amassed a total of 21 bids during his Debate tenure, Lincoln Douglas head captain Isaiah Paik ‘18 has amassed 20 bids over his 4-year career, and Speech head captain Rahul Jagetia ’18 has amassed one bid. Alternatively, you can qualify by having a winning record at the contentious district state-qualifying tournament.

In Lincoln Douglas debate, under the guidance of Mr. Lewis and Isaiah Paik, US pre-qualified a state record of six people to the state tournament: Isaiah Paik, RJ McIntyre ‘18, Dan Ryan ‘18, Nick Protasiewicz ‘19, Saavan Patel ‘20, and Nehal Chigurupati ‘20. In Public Forum debate, under the guidance of Mr. Paik and Akshat Chowksey, the teams of Akshat Chowksey and Sukhm Kang ‘20, Akash Salgia ‘18 and Anish Ganesh ‘19, Eric Miranda ‘18 and Matt Wesorick ‘18, in addition to Kiran Krishnamurthi ’19 and Nate Mayor ’19 all pre-qualified to the state tournament. In speech, Rahul Jagetia, Ashwin Veeramani ‘18, Arnold von Engelbrechten ’19, Auryon Azar ‘19, Conrad Hiltebrant ‘19, and Dan Leonard ’19 qualified. In Congress, US sent four debaters: Sai Karnati ‘20, Wyatt Sweeney ‘19, Brady Condon ‘21, and John DeSantis ‘20.

Riding on this momentum from the pre-season, US had a successful state tournament. In Lincoln Douglas debate, Isaiah Paik, Nehal Chigurupati, and Nick Protasiewicz broke to elimination rounds. In preliminary rounds, Nick Protasiewicz and Nehal Chigurupati went undefeated. Nick Protasiewicz went on to win the state championship, continuing US’ six-year record of having a Lincoln Douglas debater in state finals. In Public Forum debate, the teams of Akshat Chowksey and Sukhm Kang, Nate Mayor and Kiran Krishnamurthi, and Anish Ganesh and Akash Salgia advanced to elimination rounds. The team of Anish Ganesh and Akash Salgia made it to the semi-final round. In speech, Arnold von Engelbrechten made it to the quarter-final round of his event, International Extemporaneous, and Auryon Azar made it to the semi-final round of his event, Dramatic Interpretation. In Congress, Brady Condon advanced to the quarter-final round. US’s impressive performance at the state tournament only reaffirmed their position as an outstanding and distinguished speech and debate team. Stay tuned in as Isaiah Paik battles it out with Gilmour’s Sebastian Williams in Lincoln Douglas debate at the prestigious City Club Debate round to close out the regular season. Both Isaiah and Sebastian were handpicked by the city of Cleveland to compete in this event, for these two debaters exemplify the best of the best in Cleveland.