USC senior finishes 7th in national speech competition

Upper St. Clair High School senior Saraj Quinto recently finished seventh in the nation in the Dramatic Performer category of the National Catholic Forensic League Grand Nationals in Sacramento, Calif.

Saraj, captain of the speech and debate team, along with 25 other Upper St. Clair High School students qualified to participate in the event, which was held May 28-29, 2016.

Qualifying in debate were the Public Forum teams Hunter Lantzman and Caleb Troughtzmantz as well as Anvi Kumar and Harshini Sakhthivel (who were unable to attend the competition after being added from the alternate list). Three Policy Debate teams also qualified, the first ever to represent USC in the event, Jacob Lantzman and Yash Lahoti; Spencer Miller and Eva Schenker; and Meghan Joon and Mallika Matharu. Finally, all four Upper St. Clair Lincoln-Douglas debaters qualified for nationals: Amna Amin, Neale Misquitta, Ariana Chiu and Raahema Durrani.

Raahema, a junior, went 5-0 in preliminary rounds becoming the first Upper St. Clair debater ever to do so at a national tournament and ended up placing 17th nationally.

Qualifying in speech were Declamation competitor Rita Beauchamp; Extemporaneous speakers Chase Miller, Justin Brandwein, Thomas Mologne and Roderick Smith; Oral Interpers Laura Lapham and Hannah Sanner; Original Orators Tana Mahajan and Krisha Monpara, and Dramatic Performers Saraj Quinto, Erin Graham, and Katherine Starr.