With two first-place winners in individual events, 10 members of the speech and debate team competed successfully at the Golden Desert Invitational in Las Vegas, which took place from Feb. 1-4.
Senior Ishaan Kolluri finished first in extemporaneous speech, while junior Jason Li placed first in original oratory. Both events had roughly 50 competitors.
“It was quite surprising,” Li said. “I did not think I would do so well. This was the first tournament I [have advanced to the finals] this year, and I did not even expect to get in the top three.”
Although the participants in individual events enjoyed great success, none of the members of the debate team were able to advance to the elimination rounds due to the high levels of competition at the tournament. In fact, 67 schools from 19 states attended the tournament.
“None of them broke, but they put up a good fight,” Kolluri said about the Saratoga debaters. “A lot of them [had a record of] 3-3 or 2-4 because this is one of the most difficult tournaments of the year.”
Aside from competing, Kolluri said the team enjoyed a lot of free time to tour Las Vegas outside tournament hours.
“We knew everybody would give it their all, but at the same time, we got plenty of time to spend, hang out, eat good food, tour the strip and see all the sights,” Kolluri said.
After their first day of competition on Feb. 1, Li said the team treated themselves to a delicious dinner at an Italian restaurant. They also visited the Luxor, an Egyptian style hotel, the Forum Shoppes of Caesar Palace and the Bellagio Fountains.
Having never visited Las Vegas before, Li said that Valley High School, where the individual events tournament was held, was very different from Saratoga.
“I loved the high school we went to,” Li said. “It was completely different from Saratoga. [It looked like] it was straight out of ‘High School Musical.’”
On top of the fun experiences, Kolluri said that the exposure to competition and the practice the team acquired from the tournament will be beneficial for future tournaments, especially the Stanford invitational from Feb. 9-11 and the Berkeley invitational from Feb. 16-18.
“I think [Golden Desert] was a good precursor for those who came,” Kolluri said. “They got to see their weaknesses before Stanford and Cal, and they realized the competition was large.”
