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March 16, 2018
Several qualify for national forensics tournaments
Several members of the Upper St. Clair High School Speech & Debate Team have qualified to compete in two national tournaments.
The USC Speech & Debate Team finished second at the National Speech & Debate Association’s qualifying tournament on March 10 at North Allegheny Senior High School.
For this competition, two competitors or teams are chosen from all of Western Pennsylvania to attend the 2018 National Speech & Debate Tournament June 17-22, in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. in June. The team finished second in Speech, Debate and Overall behind North Allegheny.
Qualifying to compete at nationals were district champions Wyatt Keating and Shebl Rosati in Duo, and Dina Leyzarovich and Meghan Joon in Public Forum debate.
Alternates include Ethan Bowman in U.S. Extemporaneous; Charlize Goff and Sammy Levy in Program Oral Interpretation; Hashim Durrani in Drama; and Maddie Nolen in Humor; and the team of Anvi Kumar and Harshini Sakthivel in Public Forum.
Other finalists included the team of Jacob Lantzman and Steven Cheung in Public Forum; Hridhay Reddy in U.S Extemporaneous; Antara Cleetus in International Extemporaneous; and the teams of Yash Jajoo & Devan Ekbote and Claire Chen & Sunny Chai in Policy debate.
Seniors Steven Cheung, Ariana Chiu, Jacob Lantzman, Harshini Sakthivel, and Ava White are also under consideration for the Pittsburgh District World Debate Team.
Principal Dr. Louis Angelo was awarded the Pittsburgh District Principal of the Year for his role in supporting the Speech & Debate Team throughout the years.
In addition, 17 students from the Upper St. Clair High School Speech & Debate team qualified to compete at the National Catholic Forensic League Grand National Tournament as a result of their performance at the qualifying tournament on March 3, 2018, at Fort Couch Middle School.
Individual successes in debate include tournament champion Amanda Ross and undefeated Abby Riemer in Lincoln-Douglas debate; the team of Jacob Lantzman and Steven Cheung in Public Forum debate; and the team of Yash Jajoo and Devan Ekbote in Policy debate. Daniel Speer also qualified in Senate.
In speech, qualifiers include tournament champion Paarth Shankar and Ethan Bowman in Extemporaneous; the team of Wyatt Keating and Shebl Rosati and the team of Anber Bhuiyan and Aya Dakroub in Duo; Charlize Goff in Oral Interpretation; Bryce Keating and Joe Phillips in Declamation; and Shanthi Krishnaswamy in Oratory.
Alternates include Spencer Miller in Lincoln-Douglas; the team of Anika Sinha and Mathena Jencka in Public Forum; the team of Sunny Chai and Claire Chen in Policy; Chand Vadalia and Hridhay Reddy in Extemporaneous; and Neha Patel in Oratory.
The NCFL will be held Memorial Day weekend in Washington, D.C.
