by Soham Erasani ’27
Just 2 weekends ago, the Bellarmine Speech and Debate team drove down to California State University, Long Beach (CSULB) and competed in their first travel tournament of this school year! After a long drive in a fleet of Bellarmine vans, the students crushed the competition winning several awards and receiving bids to attend the Tournament of Champions.
(Students with *** at the end of their name have earned a bid to attend the Tournament of Champions in April 2024)
Note: Two bids are needed to attend TOC.
Extemporaneous Speaking (Extemp):
- Rohit Vakkalagadda ’24 – 2nd place finalist***
- Zane Hensley ’24 – 4th place finalist***
- Aadi Chauhan ’25 – 6th place finalist***
- Abhijay Rana ’25 – semifinalist
- Neil Alappatt ’26 – semifinalist
- Austin Bauman ’24 – semifinalist
Policy Debate:
- Surya Krishnapillai and Rohan Lingam ’24 – 2nd place, losing the final round on a 2-1 decision***
- Arthur Tu and Derek Qian ’25 – Octofinalists (top 16)
- Arnav Aggarwal ’25 and Andrew Wen ’24 – Double Octofinalist (top 32)
- Shae McInnis and Andrew Huang ’25 – Double Octofinalists (top 32)
- Shamit D’Souza and Samarjit Deshmukh ’25 – Double Octofinalists (top 32)
Congressional Debate:
- Akshar Ammu ‘25 — 6th place finalist***
- Akilan Dorairaj ’24 — 7th place finalist***
- Aswin Surya ’24 – 12th place finalist***
- Aarnav Nagabhirava – finalist
Original Oratory (OO):
- Brian Zhao ’25 — 3rd place finalist***
- Ilesh Sundar ’26 – 4th place finalist***
- Oliver Chen ’25 – 6th place finalist***
Informative Speaking (Info):
- Gavin Griffin ’24 – 2nd place finalist***
Humorous Interp (HI):
- Varnit Dutta ’25 – 6th place finalist***
Impromptu Speaking:
- Rohit Vakkalagadda ’24 – semifinalist
All 25 students who participated in this tournament (Speech and Debate) from Bellarmine made it to at least the elimination rounds.
Unfortunately the debaters were competing in rounds during the team photo.
Courtesy of Mr. Langerman