Stay up to date with all things Mitty Speech & Debate.
After 3 league tournaments, MSD brought a record breaking 156 qualifiers to the state tournament! In the end, we ended up with 42 entries to the state tournament and 49 individual qualifiers. A huge congratulations to everyone on their hard work this season and we can’t wait to see what MSD does at the state tournament!
On President’s Day Weekend, MSD went to UC Berkeley for the annual Cal invitational and got first place overall for the first time in our program’s history! Here are some individual results from the tournament:
DI:
5th - Kriti
2nd - Jayden
Duo:
3rd: Nikki & Nithin
2nd: Kriti & Avi
1st: Katie & Jayden
HI:
2nd: Jayden
Imp:
5th: Meera
Info:
6th: KP
2nd: Tiger
OO:
3rd: Tiger
Congress:
4th: Sashank
PF:
Dubs: Rohan & Atharv
Octos: Sameet & Niranjan
LD:
Trips: Andrew
Fresh out of winter break, MSD gave it their all at the MLK invitational held at James Logan High School and finished first place as an overall team! A huge shoutout to everyone that grinded over winter break to make this tournament and its results possible!! Here are some individual results:
Congress:
Navya: 2nd
Sashank: 3rd
LD:
Ansh: 1st
Policy:
Aarya / Aayaan: 1st
Parli:
Aneesh / Brandon: Semis
Nik / Aalyosh: Octos
Shloka / Katie: Trips
Barrett / Ethan: Trips
PF:
Chaith / Wayne: Dubs
Dec:
Tiger: 3rd
Anna: 6th
Keara: Semis
Kriti: Semis
Samaira: Semis
Eva: Quarters
Sarah: Quarters
Suhana: Quarters
DI:
Kate: 1st
Jayden: 2nd
Avi: Semis
KP: Quarters
Duo:
Katie / Jayden: 1st
Kriti / Avi: 2nd
Saanvi / Natalie: Quarters
HI:
Kate: 1st
Jayden: Semis
Katie: Semis
Arjun: Quarters
Katherine: Quarters
OO:
Tiger: 2nd
Samaira: Semis
Anjani: Quarters
Anna: Quarters
Deepika: Quarters
Kabir: Quarters
OA:
Sudhanva: 5th
Jordan: Semis
Deepika: Semis
Aneesh: Semis
Barrett: Quarters
Chloe: Quarters
Grace: Quarters
Maanika: Quarters
OPP:
KP: 2nd
Anika Chatradhi: 3rd
Arabela: 5th
Avi: Semis
Jordan: Semis
POI:
Katie: 3rd
Kate: 4th
Anya: Semis
Anika Ganu: Quarters
Arabela: Quarters
Keara: Quarters
Info:
Aishi: 7th
Katherine: Semis
KP: Semis
Syona: Semis
Anjani: Quarters
Anna: Quarters
Braden: Quarters
Maanika: Quarters
Meera: Quarters
Yuna: Quarters
Imp:
Wayne: 4th
Meera: Semis
Ana: Quarters
Chaith: Quarters
Kriti: Quarters
IX:
Dhruv: Semis
NX:
Wayne: 6th
Chaith: Quarters
From November 18 to November 20, MSD took on Chicago at the Glenbrooks invitational! Known as nationals in november, MSD went up against some of the best competition in the nation and did amazing. Congrats to everyone for competing and here are some individual results:
DUO:
Jayden / Katie - 3rd
Avi / Kriti - 5th
Info:
KP: 5th
Katherine - Semifinalist
Aishi - Quarters
Braden - Quarters
HI:
Kate - 5th
POI:
Katie - Semifinalist
DI:
Kate - Semifinalist
OO:
Anjani - Semifinalist
PF:
Sameet / Niranjan: Competing in Dubs (secured second silver bid)
Congress (all receiving a bid):
Navya - Semifinalist
Aarya - Semifinalist
Vir - Semifinalist
Sashank - 3rd
From September 30 to October 2, MSD competed at the Jack Howe Invitiational down in long beach and received second place overall and first out of varsity teams! Congrats to everyone who competed for a fantastic tournament and showing!
This past weekend, MSD had the opportunity to defend our reigning state champion title for the fifth time…and we did it! Thank you to everyone who played a part in putting together and preparing for the first ever online California State Tournament, and congratulations to the following competitors, octofinalists, semifinalists, and champions:
Ashwath Bhupatiraju (DI)
Dhruv Kanumury (OPP)
Ines Benmakhlouf (DI)
Reagan Such (POI)
Kriti Vamshidhar (Congress)
Caitlin Bergevin (Congress)
Pranay Macherla and Siddharth Nair (PF)
Ahilan Karuppusami (Children’s Literature)
Jaelynn Pascual (Children’s Literature)
Annabelle Barbazette (Poetry)
Ishir Vaidyanath and Rayan Garg (Parli)
Anousha Athreya (Congress)
Justin Fusilero (HI)
Amit Chathoth (HI)
Amy Gruber (OPP)
Anish Gupta (OPP)
Camille Van Bruaene (POI)
Rohan Rane (POI)
Alex Ali (NX)
Drake Som (OO)
Riti Dey (TikTok)
Ria Sudhir (Poetry)
Victoria Liu (Poetry)
Kate Nidome (DI)
Callie Watson (DI)
Jenika Fernando (OI)
Sritha Bhupatiraju (HI)
Chidubem Nwosu (OA)
Jack Hull and Jack Clisbee (DUO)
Rohan Tawade (Expos)
Eric Matsumoto and Param Patel (DUO)
Genevieve McKenzie and Milo Mee (DUO)
Srikar Rajendran and Ronak Bhat (DUO)
Khushi Parikh (OA)
Isabella Nicolletti (OPP)
Zuri Wilson (OPP)
Angelina Arnst (OI)
Gabriel Brenner (Children’s Literature)
Sebastian Young (TikTok)
Alexis Korb (TikTok)
Marijka Vernooy (OI)
Nishita Belur and Khushi Parikh (Parli)
Sydnie Domingue (POI)
Shefali Bharadwaj (TikTok)
If you’re interested in watching our state finalist and champion performances, feel free to use these links to watch a livestream of their final rounds:
DUO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6J6iBEsm3QY
OO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lbi9AEFATc
HI: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muzXbAz1x2Y
POI: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Da8m7nnLIgA
OA: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k856KNcdJzM
DI: https://youtu.be/dz7O3XF3JZQ
Parli: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPhy0UDyRww
Unfortunately, the OPP and OI final round videos will not be available until CHSSA uploads them to their website, but you can watch our state champion OI here:
And finally, some photos from the weekend!
Although obviously heartbroken that there will not be a State Tournament this year, we reflect on our opportunity to now support the community that usually gives up their weekends for us. All the coaches, tournament hosts, judges and parents that support young voices through this incredible activity we call Speech and Debate. It’s our time to give up our weekend for you. Because if cancelling a State tournament means more time with Hall of Fame coaches and grandparents who hug you whether or not you bring home a trophy - then MSD is ready, like always to go ALL IN. Thank you everyone for your support, and because life lessons, growth, relationships, memories and moments > medals - our season never ends.
And, we would still like to Congratulate our State Qualifiers!!
Impromtu:
Himansh Bishnoi
Jacob Vargas
Nikhil Shanbhag
International Extemporaneous:
Daniel Kim
National Extemporaneous:
Aalok Patwa
Saumil Thakore
Humorous Interpretation:
Justin Fusilero
Nick Maranowski
Milo Mee
Madurya Suresh
Sameer Keswani
Dramatic Interpretation:
Ashwath Bhupatiraju
Angelina Arnst
Olivia Cookman
Duo Interpretation:
Alexis Korb / Jack Hull
Grace Govig / Matthew Maranowski
Kassidy Jordan / Sydnie Domingue
Expository:
Sarah Yum
Shreya Balusu
Original Oratory:
Drake Som
Annabelle Duflock
Program Oral Interpreation:
Ines Ben Makhlouf
Genevieve McKenzie
Original Prose & Poetry:
Zuri Wilson
Cailey Larmore
Anish Gupta
Bella Nicoletti
Amy Gruber
Puneet Khanna
Original Advocacy:
Ria D’Souza
Irina Paun
Priyanka Joshi
Khushi Parikh
Oratorical Interpretation:
Tristan Grant
Jaelynn Pascual
Marijka Vernooy
Parliamentary:
Joanne Park / John Lee
Ojas Upalekar / Priyanka Joshi
Khushi Parikh / Nishita Belur
Policy:
Aalok Patwa / Mohul Aggarwal
Public Forum:
Joonhee Park / Daniel Kim
Hannah Johnson / Ashley Kang
Lincoln-Douglas:
Lukas Krause
Congress:
Tanish Kumar
Arushi Lahiri
Mehar Singh
MSD has been having a busy 1st semester! From league tournaments to invitationals, everyone has been working hard. Here’s a short recap.. in 10 pictures :)
MSD Day
Long Beach 2019
League Debate
League Speech
League Congress
UOP
Glenbrooks
Blitz!!!
More Blitz :)
The National Tournament is one of the most prestigious competitive opportunities for MSD, featuring some of the most talented students across the nation. At the 2019 National Tournament in Dallas, Texas, MSD brought a squad of 23, excited to take on the challenge.
After a great showing in both speech and debate, MSD took Top 10 in the Nation the fifth time in a row!
Individual results were as follows:
Jon Telebrico (World Schools) - Octafinals
Arushi Lahiri (Congress) - Semifinalist
Nishita Belur (Congress) - Semifinalist
Jake Ledger (DI) - Top 60
Sameer Keswani (HI) - Top 30
Jasmine Yee (Info) - Semifinalist
Eshan Gupta (IX) - Semifinalist
Kritika Yerrapotu (OO) - Top 30
Shanaya Sales (POI) - Top 30
Aalok Patwa (NX) - Top 30
Aditi Chatradhi (NX) - Top 60
Darya Kaviani (Congress) - Finalist
Roshni Varma (IX) - 6th
Naman Dandia and Daniel Edmunds (Duo) - 3rd
Conor Sherry (HI) - 1st, our first ever national champion!
The State Tournament is one of the most important tournaments for MSD, an opportunity for both those competing and watching to work towards a common goal: winning our fourth state title. This year, State was held in Long Beach, California, bringing our team back full circle to the first tournament of the year (CSU Long Beach).
MSD’s hard work all season long paid off: we were four-time consecutive state champions!
Following are individual placements from the tournament:
Nabeel Shaikh and Mehar Singh (Policy Debate) - Octafinalist
Daniel Kim and Varun Joshi (Policy Debate) - Octafinalist
Devin Makhni and Vedant Vamshidhar (Parli Debate) - Semifinalist
Aayush Sutaria and Anish Patel (Parli Debate) - Semifinalist
Helena Getayalew and Tanvi Bajaj (Parli Debate) - Quarterfinalist
Darya Kaviani and Roshni Varma (Public Forum Debate) - Semifinalist
Sanika Mauskar (OA) - 1st
Tanvi Bajaj (OA) - 7th
Aalok Patwa (NX) - 6th
Jasmine Yee (Info) - 5th
Kritika Yerrapotu (Info) - 2nd
Conor Sherry (POI) - 2nd
Jake Ledger (DI) - 1st
Naman Dandia and Daniel Edmunds (Duo) - 1st
Kassidy Jordan (OPP) - 7th
Sydnie Domingue (OPP) - 3rd
Cailey Larmore (OPP) - 2nd
Priya Ravi (OPP) - 5th
The Nationals Qualifier Tournament is a unique opportunity for students to compete with the best of the best, eventually making it to the prestigious National Tournament which will be hosted in Dallas, Texas this year. This tournament not only featured amazing competition but also allowed students to network with other schools. Most competitors had seen each other at several tournaments over the year, and many found this as good practice for the State Championship Tournament later this semester.
This tournament allowed us to qualify a historic 22 students (the greatest number in MSD history): sophomores Aalok Patwa, Nishita Belur, and Drake Som; juniors Naman Dandia, Daniel Edmunds, Cailey Larmore, Nick Maranowski, Sameer Keswani, Kritika Yerrapotu, Jake Ledger, Jasmine Yee, Arushi Lahiri, and Madurya Suresh; and seniors Aditi Chatradhi, Vedant Vamshidhar, Jon Telebrico, Roshni Varma, Conor Sherry, Mayank Killedar, Darya Kaviani, Eshan Gupta, and Shanaya Sales.
Special congratulations to Madurya Suresh and Darya Kaviani who placed first in their events during the competition!
Welcome to the height of Speech and Debate season! The blitzes are filled with the sound of several speeches going on at once and the debate rooms have students hunched over computers preparing for their next speech.
The State Qualifying Tournament itself has competitors caught between varied feelings of fear and excitement as they make it through the 3 Preliminary rounds. Breaks are a team affair with events grouping together with the hope that several from their squad make it through. Awards are always the most nerve-wracking of the semester so far. Over a hundred speech kids from Archbishop Mitty attended the award ceremony which is filled with sobs of joy and happiness!
This State Qualifying tournament was no exception, but the success was well worth it! Overall, we qualified a total of 49 competitors to the State Championship Tournament.
To learn more about the atmosphere and competition of this tournament, check out the competitor quotes below!
“The most important moment for me was not when I qualified, but when our youngest members qualified. It felt so amazing to be part of our MSD family.”
“State Quals is where, after 8 months of anticipation, the Road to State truly begins. The excitement, nerves, and unity all emerge, as the 160 strong team, comes together with one common goal. ”
“Every round of State Quals is special: not only is it the pinnacle of the MSD season, but you are also reminded that even if you’re competing alone, you debate (or speak!) with your entire team behind you. ”
“State Quals is truly an invigorating and energizing tournament where every round is of the utmost value. Not just because it is a means to get to State but rather that it is the culmination of everything you have put in over the course of the year.”
“State quals every year is the culmination of a year of hard work. No matter how it ends up, whether it is you or your friends on the final stage getting the opportunity to qual, to know that you played a part in one of those journeys no matter how small or large is a feeling I will never forget!”
The Berkeley National Tournament is a unique opportunity for students to be immersed in MSD culture while having a great time competing with their friends. This tournament occurs during the President’s Day weekend from February 15th to February 18th. This year, we were able to bring 71 competitors to this unique invitational; from singing tunes on the bus to TM circles to walking around the campus to grab food, all the competitors were immersed in culture over the course of the weekend.
Competitively, the tournament was a huge success for Archbishop Mitty. We had 14 people make it to the finals in their speech events with 2 tournament champions: Jasmine Yee and Connor Sherry. In debate, we had 3 teams make it to Triples in LD with Lukas Krause making it to Doubles, Aalok Patwa and Mohul Aggarwal made it to the Doubles in Policy Debate, and in PF Roshni Varma and Darya Kaviani were able to advance all the way to Octos!
In overall standings, Archbishop Mitty placed 1st in the speech sweepstakes and 2nd in the overall sweepstakes–an astounding achievement!
With MLK on the horizon coming into the spring season, everyone on the team was enthusiastic for this historic tournament. This tournament progressed over January 19th and 20th, with debaters also participating in 2 rounds on Friday afternoon, January 18th; the length of the tournament forced competitors to remain disciplined and healthy over the course of this long weekend. Thankfully, we had Monday off to catch up on homework and sleep!
Out of the 94 teams competing in the Martin Luther King Jr. Invitational, we took home first place in the sweepstakes–for the 4th year in a row! Additionally, we had 5 tournament champions (won 1st in their speech event): juniors Naman Dandia, Cailey Larmore; seniors Vedant Vamshidhar, Riya Dhoopar, and Conor Sherry. We also closed out Policy Debate with juniors Arushi Lahiri and Kirthi Ponnuswamy, and seniors Rose Gatlin and Malavika Ramarao named co-tournament champions in the event!
Congratulations to the approximately 125 students who competed in this tournament! Our success and accomplishments have set the stage for future invitationals this semester as well as the state tournament.
For the first time in MSD history, 26 students traveled to Chicago, Illinois to compete in the largest first semester national tournament, Glenbrooks. Waking up early on Saturday morning to compete, the group was met with a “magical” flurry of snow to sweeten the first morning of competition. Fast forward to Sunday, and the speech team was awarded 2nd place in this prestigious tournament, only one point away from 1st!
The weekend was filled with lots of firsts, cold weather, and of course...pizza.
The following people placed in their events at the invitational:
UOP, one of the most unique experiences for first semester, made MSD history for allowing 50/59 competitors to attend their first travel tournament!
After the end of a hectic week, debaters left on Friday and speech arrived on Saturday for a weekend bursting with competition. Yet, it wouldn’t be an MSD event without team culture. Special appearances were made by alumni, the return of Pop N Flow, and team letters!
In the end, MSD was the tournament champion!
The following people placed in their events at the UOP Invitational:
Congrats to all the speech members that competed at the Milpitas Invitational! A special congrats to the following students: Naman Dandia, Julian Sanghvi, Alicia Matsumoto, Conor Sherry, and Aneri Bhatt. All of these students received a bid to the National Individual Events Tournament of Champions in Nebraska next May. The following students also had an outstanding run at the Milpitas Invitational and placed in the final round.
POI
Conor Sherry - 1st
Ali Matsumoto - 2nd
Sameer Keswani - 3rd
HI
Julian Sanghvi - 1st
Devin Makhni - 2nd
Madurya Suresh - 3rd
DUO
Julian Sanghvi and Ali Matsumoto - 1st
Naman Dandia and Daniel Edmunds - 2nd
Emma Skeet and Nava Tamjidi - 5th
DRAMATIC
Aneri Bhatt - 1st
Emma Skeet - 3rd
Jake Ledger - 5th
Expos
Naman Dandia - 1st
Kritika Yerrapotu - 2nd
Jasmine Yee - 3rd
Suroor Nakhoda - 4th
Jon Telebrico - 5th
OO
Kritika Yerrapotu - 2nd
IMP
Vedant Vamshidar - 2nd
After a long day at school, our Long Beach competitors took off at 2:00 to begin the start of the competitive season and our journey towards the 4-peat. Of course, none of this would be possible on an empty stomach so a quick stop to In-N-Out was necessary, followed by words of encouragement from their Pizza Pals, before arriving at Long Beach hungry for the next day’s competition.
Saturday did not disappoint with 3 preliminary speech and debate rounds and a large campus to keep everybody busy. Performing all over campus, our students took everything in stride and focused on perfecting each of their performances.
Sunday brought excitement with the semi’s and final rounds, all leading up to the award ceremony where Mitty received the number 1 sweepstakes spot with special congratulations to the following students:
HI:
Madurya Suresh - 2nd
Sameer Keswani - Semifinalist
Nick Maranowski - Semifinalist
Julian Sanghvi - Semifinalist
DI:
Aneri Bhatt - Semifinalist
Jake Ledger - Semifinalist
POI:
Conor Sherry - 2nd
Shanaya Sales - 6th
Anna Wymbs - Semifinalist
Cailey Larmore - Semifinalist
Alicia Matsumoto - Semifinalist
DUO:
Naman Dandia/Daniel Edmunds - 1st
Alicia Matsumoto/Julian Sanghvi - 2nd
Shanaya Sales/Jake Ledger - 5th
Nava Tamjidi/Emma Skeet - 7th
Anna Wymbs/Aneri Bhatt - Semifinalists
Nick Maranowski/Cailey Larmore - Semifinalists
OO:
Sophia Scott - Semifinalist
Kritika Yerrapotu - Semifinalist
Informative:
Daniel Edmunds - 1st
Kritika Yerrapotu - 2nd
Shreya Balusu - 5th
Suroor Nakhoda - 6th
Katherine Phan - Semifinalist
Naman Dandia - Semifinalist
Jasmine Yee - Semifinalist
OA:
Riya Dhoopar- 3rd Place
Sanika Mauskar- 4th Place
Heather Cherniss- 6th Place
Extemp:
Aditi Chatradhi - 2nd
Daniel Kim - 5th
Impromptu
Vedant Vamshidhar - 2nd place
Policy:
Mohul Aggarwal/Aalok Patwa - Double Octofinalists
LD:
Lukas Krause - Double Octofinalists
John Lee - Double Octofinalists
Joanne Park - Octofinalists
Parli:
Eshan Gupta/Aditi Chatradhi - Octofinalists
Aayush Sutaria/Anish Patel - Quarterfinalists
Tanvi Bajaj/Helena Getayalew - Quarterfinalists
Vedant Vamshidhar/Devin Makhni - Finalists
Eshan Gupta - 1st Speaker Award
Vedant Vamshidhar - 3rd Speaker Award
Public Forum:
Amit Ahluwalia/Tushar Agashe - Double Octofinalists
Darya Kaviani/Roshni Varma - Quarterfinalists
At the end of the day, our team had several trophies under our belt, with special congratulations to the following members in their events:
Finally, one key piece of this tournament was the bestowing of NIETOC bids, which will allow members in speech to compete at the National IE Tournament of Champions in the spring. The awardees of the NIETOC bids are listed below:
DI:
Jake
Aneri
HI:
Madurya
Informative
Daniel
Kritika
OO:
Sophia
Kritika
POI:
Conor
Shanaya
Duo:
Julian/Ali
Daniel/Naman
Jake/Shanaya
Emma/Nava
Finally, as per tradition, the tournament was followed by a stop at Glowzone where scores and ranks were left behind and students just enjoyed one another’s presence.
MSD Day is an opportunity for events to show off and recruit both new and old members; everyone shows up decked out and ready to explore all the events available. Below are just a few examples of the numerous events offered to the speech and debate team.
While the new team members find out which events they want to focus on, our alumni have come back to share their experiences and inspire us all.
As always, these MSD events give us a chance to bond with our teammates, and get to know new members.
This Nationals tournament we brought our biggest team yet, and had an amazing experience both competitively and culturally. Following are individual's placements at Nationals:
Conor Sherry (Humorous Interpretation) - 4th
Eshan Gupta (International Extemporaneous) - 6th
Amelia Whitney (Dramatic Interpretation) - Quarters (Top 30)
Sameer Keswani (Humorous Interpretation) - Quarters (Top 30)
Liz Mau (Informative Speaking) - Quarters (Top 30)
Esha Bhatia (Dramatic Interpretation) - Octos (Top 60)
Maddie Whalen (Informative Speaking) - Octos (Top 60)
Maddie Davis (POI) - Octos (Top 60)
Julian Sanghvi (Humorous Interpretation) - Octos (Top 60)
Mukil Pari (International Extemporaneous) - Octos (Top 60)
Debate:
Aayush Sutaria (Congress) - Semis
Arushi Lahiri/Kirthi Ponnuswamy (Policy) - Round 10 (Top 30)
