Friday, February 5, 2021 - 8:32 am
The MHS Debate Club had five of the top 10 varsity speaker awards at the Wisconsin State Debate Virtual Tournament on Jan. 15-17.
Heba Haq took first place, Michael Lee finished third, Aarush Jain placed fourth, Dheeraj Pasikanti was fifth and Dhruv Prakash took ninth in the varsity speaker awards.
Aarush Jain and Michael Lee made it to quarterfinals in the varsity competition, while Kaitlyn Narman and Brooke Rhodes made it to octos. Two teams -- Prishaa Rajesh and Heba Haq along with Dheeraj Pasikanti and Dhruv Prakash -- were one round away from advancing out of the preliminary rounds.
Kaitlyn Narman and Brooke Rhodes were also undefeated at the national qualifying tournament and qualify to Nationals, which will be held virtually in June. Daria Rudykh and Rohan Kommuri are the first alternates to Nationals.
Members of the MHS JV debate team also fared well at state, with nine placing in the top 10 in the individual speaker awards. They included: Isha Chilukuri and Ben Pralat (tied for first place), Ria Karthik and Rose Jesuit (tied for third place), Alexa Garber (fourth), Taylor Johnson (fifth), Amritha Mavuri (sixth), Genevieve Eck (ninth), and Ricardo Sanchez Cortes (10th).
The team of Amy Jiang and Shelley Yang finished in second place in the JV tournament, while the teams of Amritha Mavuri and Isha Chilukuri along with Alexa Garber and Ricardo Sanchez Cortes advanced to the semifinals. Genevieve Eck and Taylor Johnson made it to the quarterfinals, while Nathan Kwon and Joseph Lee advanced to the octos round. Finally, Eric Ma and Kevin Wu, and Naveed Ansari and Vipul Dhiman were one round away from advancing out of the preliminary rounds.
The MHS Debate Club adviser is Brittany Newman. Visit the MHS Debate Club's Facebook page to see more photos and read more about their season. You can also learn more on the National Speech and Debate Association website.