On Sept. 16 and 17, the speech and debate team attended the Seventh Annual Robert Garcia Memorial Invitational tournament at St. Francis High in Mountain View. Since it was the team’s first competition of the year, participants hope it set the tone for the remainder of the season.

The team sent three teams in Public Forum, two in Lincoln-Douglas and two in Policy.

One Public Forum team, seniors Ayush Aggarwal and Arun Ramakrishnan reached finals but lost on a 3-0 decision, placing second overall.

“It was a good warm-up for the rest of the season,” Ramakrishnan said.

The other Public Forum team, sophomores Adhit Sankharan and Jayne Zhou, broke to octafinals but lost on a 2-1 decision.

In policy debate, juniors David Koh and Satvik Narasimhan, made quarterfinals but lost on a 3-0 decision.

Separately, Koh won first place in speaking for the most individual points, which the judges award based on argumentation, style and presentation.

Head speech and debate coach Chris Harris said that he was proud of the team’s performance.

“We once again represented the same way the Falcons always represent,” Harris said.