Team sends four to nationals

This year’s National Speech and Debate Qualifiers was the first time in the last few years that the team qualified students to nationals. 

At Bellarmine College Preparatory. on March 23 and 24, seniors Sujay Khandekar, Ishaan Kolluri, Aneesa Mazumdar and Venkat Munukutla each placed in the top three of their event, qualifying for the national tournament in Alabama during the first week of summer break.

Sujay qualified in Original Oratory, Kolluri in Domestic Extemp, Mazumdar in Foreign Extemp, and Munukutla in Lincoln-Douglas debate. 

“It feels pretty exhilarating because in our league, this is truly the tournament we have to work towards,” Kolluri said. “Since we were able to send four people to nationals for the first time in my high school career, I think it is great for the team.”

Sujay Khandekar feels the same way about the tournament.

“This is amazing for the team. It has been a long time since we have sent speech and debate students to nationals, and since we are sending four, it is incredible,” Sujay Khandekar said. “It’s going to be a lot of fun.”

Junior Jason Li received fifth place in the qualifiers, and sophomores Deepti Kannan and Supriya Khandekar and senior Neil Prasad were semi-finalists, but did not advance to the next stage. 

The national tournament is the largest tournament in the country and draws hundreds of contestants from all over. Students have to practice and constantly improve to place at the national level. 

For Sujay, making it to nationals was a process that required an immense amount of practice and dedication.

“There were some points in the season where I didn’t advance in some tournaments, so I doubled down to improve my speech as much as I could,” Sujay said. “I’m glad my effort paid off in big events like states and national qualifiers.”

During the season, the team received third place overall in the league, just behind Bellarmine and Leland, and the accomplishments at the national qualifier tournament showed the upward trend the team has been displaying throughout.

According to Kolluri, now that this generation of the team has experienced achievements like this, more and more will work hard towards accomplishing the same feat in future years.