Speech and debate team ends season with excellent run at states

As the speech and debate season comes to a close, the team celebrated its successes at the state tournament in Burbank, Calif., which took place on April 19-21.

The team sent six students to states: seniors Sujay Khandekar, Aneesa Mazumdar, Venkat Munukutla, Neil Prasad and sophomores Supriya Khandekar and Jimmy Xiao. The students earned their places through their performances at the state qualifying tournament in March. Only seven students from the Coast Forensics League, of which the school is a part of, qualify in each event, meaning the state tournament has the best of the best competition from all the leagues in California.

“[Qualifying for states] was a very satisfying feeling and I was glad my hard work paid off,” said Sujay Khandekar, whose sister Supriya Khandekar also qualified for states. “Plus, it was a great way to end senior year with a bang.”

Prasad placed seventh in international extemporaneous speech, while Supriya Khandekar came in 13th place as a semifinalist in oratorical interpretation (OI). There were 56 competitors in each event, seven from each of the eight different leagues at the state tournament.

Supriya Khandekar, who qualified for states in both OI and original oratory but chose to compete in OI, said that her first experience at states was very enriching.

“After seeing how competitive, difficult and intense OI was, I felt really proud of my accomplishment,” Supriya said. “Everyone was so unique and powerful with their speeches, and I learned a lot from just watching them.”

Senior captain Ishaan Kolluri added that the individual events team’s performance at states and the state qualifiers shows significant improvement over the years.

“At state [qualifiers], we had a lot of underclassmen break to the final round, and had two sophomores make the state tournament — which was definitely a milestone,” Kolluri said.

However, the debate team did not qualify any members to the state tournament in Lincoln-Douglas, public forum, or parliamentary debate, which Munukutla attributes to lack of preparation.

“Our debate team did not work hard enough for the state qualifiers,” Munukutla said. “We considered ourselves the ‘favorites’ and we certainly didn’t bring the intensity and focus that we brought to the national qualifier.”

For those who did not attend the state tournament, the team concluded the season at the Santa Clara University Philalethic Invitational on April 6-7. Although it is a smaller tournament than the state qualifiers, the team yielded overwhelmingly successful results.

In original oratory (OO), five of the six finalists were from Saratoga: Munukutla, Sujay, junior Jason Li, sophomore Anjali Manghnani and freshman Ashvita Ramesh.

“It was a great time for many of the team members to give it their all,” Sujay Khandekar said. “I was very proud, especially in OO where we broke so many people.”

Additionally, all five of the team’s Lincoln-Douglas debaters (Munukutla, sophomores Rohith Krishna, Deepti Kannan and Derek Hsiao and freshman Shrey Desai) advanced to the quarterfinals, which Munukutla said was an “incredible achievement.”

At the season’s end, the team reflected on its performance as a whole and noted improvements, such as the team placing third overall in the Coast Forensics League after Bellarmine and Leland.

“[Coach Erick Rector] had set an ambitious goal of taking third in the league, to prove Saratoga High could be and would be a powerhouse,” Kolluri said. “Being able to take third shows us that our students have stepped up to the challenge, and that our program can achieve greater heights.”

Munukutla added that the Lincoln-Douglas debate team has come a long way since its installment last year, exemplified by its performance at the national qualifying tournament, where Kannan advanced to the semifinals and Munukutla qualified.

“Our national qualifier performance was better than expected, especially in debate,” Munukutla said. “To be honest, I didn’t expect that any of us would advance as far as we did, but overall, I think we deserved it for the work we put in.”

Kolluri added that being able to send four students, Sujay, Mazumdar, Munukutla and himself, to the national tournament on June 16-21 in Birmingham, Ala., was a historic accomplishment for the team.

On a personal note, Kolluri said his qualifying for nationals in extemporaneous speech was a dream come true.

“Since freshman year, one of my primary ambitions has been to qualify to Nationals,” Kolluri said. “The competition at the tournament was extremely tough, so when I managed to qualify, I was both surprised and exhilarated that I was able to round out my speech and debate career with the largest tournament in the nation.”

Looking back, Kolluri said that the team has grown over the year, and he is sad to leave it.

“Speech and debate is the closest activity to my heart, and as I leave one of the most formative activities in my adolescent life, I know the team is left in very, very capable hands,” Kolluri said. “Our successes and evolution have proven our team is one of the best.”