Speech and debate off to an excellent start

Before speech and debate practices even began, sophomore Rohith Krishna and senior Venkat Munukutla competed successfully at the St. Francis Lincoln Douglas debate tournament on Sept. 22-23, setting the stage for an exciting season.

The tournament, the first regional invitational of the year, consisted of six preliminary rounds.

“The tournament was a strong regional tournament with some of the best competitors in the area,” debate coach Steven Clemmons said.

Munukutla reached the quarterfinals among the top eight debaters after going undefeated in the preliminary rounds. He also received the second-place speaker award, meaning he had the second-highest speaker points out of all the competitors at the tournament.

Krishna, with a record of 4-2 in the preliminary rounds, advanced to the octofinals as one of the top 16 debaters and received a speaker award for seventh place.

“I think it’s a really great start for the Saratoga team,” Krishna said. “We got two really good performances.”

Because they both entered the tournament before speech and debate practices began on Sept. 24, coach Erick Rector said he was proud to see them take the initiative to prepare for the tournament without any help from coaches.

“I think it was very telling of their dedication to the team,” Rector said. “I’m glad they felt comfortable to ask me for the extra opportunity.”

As a senior, Munukutla said his love for speech and debate motivated him to seize this early opportunity to compete.
“In my previous tournaments, I would always be very goal-oriented,” Munukutla said. “However, when I relaxed and focused on enjoying and making the most of every round, I found that not only did I perform equally well, but I also had more fun.”

Following St. Francis, four members of the Lincoln-Douglas team including Munukutla and Krishna competed at the Voices Invitational tournament at Presentation High School on October 5-8.

The tournament, held for the first time this year, supported the Voices foundation, an organization that funds underprivileged speech and debate students.

“I’m really happy they took the initiative this year [to hold the tournament],” Krishna said. “They’re funding a lot of people that need help in environments that aren’t as privileged as Saratoga.”

In addition, two public forum teams consisting of juniors Justin Liu, Parth Kejriwal, Ajith Kosireddy and Aditya Choudhary, attended another tournament, the Harker Invitational, on Sept. 26. Liu and Kejriwal made it to the quarterfinals, qualifying them for the Tournament of Champions, one of the most prestigious national tournaments in forensics.

After the recent successes, the team looks forward to the league tournaments Nov. 10-11, the Santa Clara University Invitational on Nov. 16-18 and a few out-of-state tournaments that have yet to be organized.

“My expectations are to grow the program and to continue the level of success that we have had in the past, and exceed it,” Clemmons said. “Once the program is on solid footing, then success will follow.”