Upper St. Clair earns second place at state speech and debate tourney
The Upper St. Clair High School Speech and Debate Team placed second overall at the recent Pennsylvania High School Speech League State Tournament.
The team won Speech Sweepstakes and was third in Debate.
The team was led by several strong individual performances, including senior Maddie Nolen, who placed first in Humorous Interpretation. In addition to Maddie, eight individuals and teams were named state finalists.
- Commentary: Antara Cleetus, third place
- Duo Interpretation: Bryce Keating and Joe Phillips, third place
- Parliamentary Debate: Rushikesh Kulkarni and Dev Patel, Final Four
- Extemporaneous Speaking: Sophia Shi, fourth place; Atharva Barve, fifth place; Jack Miller, sixth place
- Prose Reading: Richa Mahajan, fourth place
- Informative Speaking: Aarav Patil, fifth place
- Dramatic Interpretation: Marlena Bononi, sixth place
- News Broadcasting: Matthew Hrehocik and Cameron Weber, third place
Several students posted strong performances, advancing to the elimination rounds at the state tournament: Kathy Li (Poetry), Saif bin Hammad (Commentary), Henry Rainone (Humorous Interpretation), Reshma Gudla (Persuasive Speaking), Ashley Eichberg and Shreya Golakiya (Policy Debate, Top 8), Jasmine Dietiker and Ipsita Singh (Parliamentary Debate, Top 8), Zoe Sobel-Drum (Supersession Senate) and Patrick Joyce (Supersession House).
These students qualified to compete at the state tournament but did not advance: Will Bacdayan and Ammar Kethavath (Public Forum Debate), Scott Cheung and Nitish Sharma (Public Forum Debate), Qadir Khan and Daniel Wang (Public Forum Debate), Raniya Kethavath and Maanasa Reddy (Parliamentary Debate), Saif Durrani (Lincoln-Douglas Debate), Anjali VIshwakarma (Lincoln-Douglas Debate), Shiven Verma and Shubham Patel (Policy Debate), Maya Qahramonova and Chelsea Liu (Duo Interpretation), Jenny Wang (Informative Speaking), Nivedha Suresh (Persuasive Speaking), Luke McDonough (Persuasive Speaking), Priyasha Itani (Persuasive Speaking), Priyanka Palayekar (Extemporaneous Debate), Nicky Misquitta (Impromptu Speaking), Ansh Goyal (Senate) and Ujal Gautam (Senate).
In order to advance to the state tournament, the Upper St. Clair High School Speech and Debate Team won the District Three Championship for the 10th consecutive time. The team is coached by high school teachers Ben Edwards and Dave Watson.
Founded in 1961, the Pennsylvania High School Speech League’s purpose is to stimulate through educational competition an understanding and appreciation of all areas of speech. Membership, which boasts more than 150 schools, is open to any public, private or parochial high school in the state.