USC earns national Debate School of Excellence Award
The Upper St. Clair High School Speech & Debate team recently earned the school’s first ever Debate School of Excellence Award from the National Speech & Debate Association. The award recognizes the top 20 schools in total debate points from the 2017 National Tournament, which was held June 18-23, 2017, in Birmingham, Ala.
In addition to the team’s achievement, several students earned high honors. The team of Macey Kaplan and Arushi Kewalramani finished 10th in Public Forum Debate. They were one of four teams in the nation that went undefeated, 12-0, in six preliminary rounds.
“Macey and Arushi achieved the highest finish by any Upper St. Clair competitors at the NSDA Nationals,” Ben Edwards, speech and debate team coach, said.
Other top finishers in the national competition include Yash Lahoti, who placed 14th among 1,300 participants in Extemporaneous Debate, and Caleb Troughtzmantz, who finished among the top 50 in Lincoln Douglas Debate.
In total, 14 Upper St. Clair High School students competed at the 2017 National Speech & Debate Association tournament, including:
- Neale Misquitta, World Debate Team
- Raahema Durrani, World Debate Team
- Vicki Wang, World Debate Team
- Yash Lahoti, World Debate Team
- Jacob Lantzman, World Debate Team
- Macey Kaplan & Arushi Kewalramani, Public Forum Debate
- Charlize Goff, Program Oral Interpretation
- Hashim Durrani, Program Oral Interpretation
- Tana Mahajan, Informative Oratory
- Shebl Rosati, Humorous Interpretation
- Caleb Troughtzmantz, Lincoln-Douglas Debate
- Amna Amin, Lincoln-Douglas Debate
- Tyler Besselman, Congress - House of Representatives
