North Allegheny placed first and second in debate, third in speech and won second place overall in the Pennsylvania High School Speech League State Championships March 17-18 in Bloomsburg.
Thirty-five members of the North Allegheny Speech and Debate team from grades nine through 12 qualified to attend the two-day championships.
“All of the events take a lot of work and preparation,” said head coach Dominic Moore, a student teacher at Peebles Elementary. “The trip went off without a hitch, the students were awesome. It couldn’t have gone better.”
Seniors Nrisimha Srivatsa Bellamkonda and Satvik Palagani were state champions in Public Forum debate, defeating another North Allegheny team consisting of senior Sriaarya Pradeepkumar and junior Tharun Sunthar in a rare single-school final round, which “rarely ever happens,” Moore said.
“A single-school final round is extraordinarily rare and speaks to the skills of all the North Allegheny Public Forum students,” Moore said.
The public forum debate pits two two-person teams against each other in a debate on a topic given at the event, with one side pro and one con. They require much research, quick-thinking and the ability to debate both sides of an argument, Moore said.
This was Nrisimha’s second and Satvik’s third consecutive year winning the Public Forum state championship.
Pradeepkumar and Sunthar placed second.
Students also compete in individual speech events, which include dramatic performances, poetry or even humorous interpretation of a well-known or published work, extemporaneous or persuasive speaking. They may give speeches on current events, Moore said.
Twenty-six of 35 NA students advanced to elimination rounds. These students advanced to semifinal and quarterfinal rounds:
Kevin Mao, senior — semifinalist, Extemporaneous Speaking.
Amanda Hulver, senior — semifinalist, Extemporaneous Speaking.
Kristina Wisniewski, sophomore, and Michael Fortunato, junior — semifinalists, Parliamentary Debate.
Rajat Reddy, senior — quarterfinalist, Extemporaneous Debate.
Kelly Tai, 10 sophomore — quarterfinalist, Lincoln-Douglas Debate.
Angela Wei, sophomore — quarterfinalist, Lincoln-Douglas Debate.
Peter Ricci Gavin Hou, both juniors — quarterfinalists, Policy Debate.
Sreeman Koka and Zohaib Rahman, both juniors — quarterfinalists, Public Forum Debate.
Adishankara Mallik and Vikram Nagarajan, both seniors — octafinalists, Public Forum Debate.
These NA students were finalists:
Daksh Goyal, senior — second place, Extemporaneous Debate.
Collin Wang, junior — fourth place, Commentary.
Architha Kamath, sophomore — fourth place, Persuasive Speaking.
Hallie Dong, sophomore — fifth place, Informative Speaking.
Junior Yibai “Sunny” Li, junior, and Charles Potter, sophomore — fifth place, Duo Interpretation.
Kaitlyn Hetherington, sophomore — ninth place, Student Congress.
The North Allegheny Speech and Debate team practices Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays from August to June during the school year and it competes every Saturday from November to March.
Nineteen students have qualified for the upcoming National Catholic Forensic League in May in Louisville and approximately 12 have qualified for the National Speech Debate Championships in Phoenix in June.
Natalie Beneviat is a Trib Total Media contributing writer.