Speech and debate team wins record number of events at Santa Clara tournament

At the Santa Clara University tournament over the Nov. 16 weekend, the members of the speech and debate team displayed an impressive show as many individuals advanced to the final rounds in multiple events against participants from 47 different schools.

The team sent a total of about 100 students to the tournament. Members spoke about current topics, like the fiscal cliff, the United States involvement in Iran and the conflict in Syria.

“We debate about topics that our country needs to address,” sophomore Rohan Bhardwaj said. “And our biggest problems right now are foreign.”

For individual events, senior Neil Prasad placed first in extemporaneous speech and senior Sanjna Verma got second place in impromptu. In both events, speakers give speeches after minimal preparation.

Sophomore Supriya Khandekar received first place in original interpretation, an event where speakers provide their own interpretation of famous speeches; her brother, senior Sujay Khandekar, made it to finals in original oratory, an event that requires a prepared 10-minute speech.

For the debate side of the tournament, parliamentary debate pair Justin Chiang and Shauray Agrawal ranked first despite being seeded 14th. In parliamentary debate teams of two debate after 20 minutes of preparation.

“It’s a really good feeling because my hard work paid off,” said Supriya. “Last year I didn’t even break.”

In addition to the varsity division, Saratoga had two novice debate teams and three speakers advance past the preliminary rounds.

“A lot of novices [advanced to elimination rounds] this tournament so that was a really good,” Supriya said.

Many speech and debate competitors advanced in multiple events.

“We won in IE, extemporaneous, and debate, which has never happened before,” said Agrawal.

With the success from this tournament, members are more confident in the team’s potential.

“Justin and I are currently ranked first in parliamentary debate [in the country], so we should be ranked higher than next year,” Agrawal said.

Although the team did well, both Agrawal and Khandekar believe that there are areas for improvement.

“As a team, we could strategize against other schools more,” Agrawal said. “Individual captains also need to make sure kids come out to practice.”

The Santa Clara tournament reflects a general consensus among the team that they are capable of competing at a higher level for future tournaments.

Not only do the captains believe there needs to be an improvement in the logistics of the practices, but they also think in order to do better at tournaments, participants need to strive to be more unique in comparison to members from other strong teams such as Bellarmine or Leland.

“In order to do well, you really need to differentiate yourself from others,” Supriya said. “But the biggest form of improvement is to practice hard.”