Speech & Debate Finishes Second in Pennsylvania

After four consecutive state titles, Upper St. Clair finished just behind North Allegheny High School, 1709 to 1540, with Pennsbury High School placing third with 885 points.

Despite narrowly missing a fifth straight championship, Upper St. Clair earned its fourth Jeanne Lutz Award, presented annually to the school with the highest cumulative team points. The honor ties Upper St. Clair with North Allegheny and Scranton School District for the second-most Lutz Awards in history. Holy Ghost Preparatory School holds the record with seven. Upper St. Clair previously earned the award in 2023, 2019 and 2013.

The team also placed second in overall Speech & Debate Sweepstakes and captured first place in the Public Address Sweepstakes, which includes Extemporaneous and Oratory events.

The 2026 championship featured 72 schools from across Pennsylvania and hundreds of competitors. Students qualified by earning bids at local tournaments, placing in the top two at qualifying competitions or being selected by coaches for supplemental events.

Senior Prachi Chetlur highlighted the competition for Upper St. Clair, capturing the program’s 41st individual state championship in Extemporaneous Speaking. Chetlur won by a historic margin – 10 ranks ahead of the second-place competitor – marking the largest margin of victory in PHSSL speech history. The title is also the team’s fourth state championship in Extemporaneous Speaking.

Senior Anoushka Barve earned her second consecutive runner-up finish and reached her third career PHSSL final in Persuasive Speaking. Seniors Devesh and Anand Jani advanced to the finals in Parliamentary Debate, while Aadhi Bharath also reached the final round in Extemporaneous Debate.

Senior Vincent Watson placed third in Informative Speaking, earning his third career PHSSL final appearance. Junior Daniyal Badaruddin also finished third in the highly competitive Congress Senate, and sophomore Raana Parchuri placed third in Persuasive Speaking.

The Parliamentary Debate team of freshmen Will Kreizenbeck and Sara Telang were "walked over" by their senior teammates in the semifinals. The freshmen concluded the tournament with a strong showing and valuable experience.

Additional finalists and quarterfinalists included:

• Senior Hansika Yanamadala — Prose (4th)
• Junior Sofia Sistilli — Persuasive Speaking (4th)
• Seniors Harrison Barker and Anh Pham — Parliamentary Debate (Quarterfinalists)
• Junior News Broadcasting Anchorwomen Pari Varshney and Harshini Sivakumar — (6th)

The strong performance capped another remarkable season for Upper St. Clair Speech & Debate, continuing the program’s long-standing tradition of excellence at the state level. The team is coached by Ben Edwards, social studies teacher. He is assisted by Emma McDonnell, gifted education teacher. Additional consultation provided by Zoe Neft, Ujal Gautam, Saif Durrani, Yasmin Hadian, Erin Wolf, and Oscar Heller.

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Below is listing of Upper St. Clair competitors at the 2026 PHSSL:

State Champion
Extemporaneous Speaking - Prachi Chetlur*

Debate Finalists (Runners-Up)
Parliamentary Debate - Devesh Jani & Anand Jani*
Extemporaneous Debate - Aadhi Bharath

Debate Semifinalists/Congress Finalists
Parliamentary Debate- Will Kreizenbeck & Sara Telang
Senate - Daniyal Badaruddin* 3rd

Speech Finalists (Top 6)
Persuasive - Anoushka Barve* 2nd
Informative - Vincent Watson* 3rd
Persuasive - Raana Parchuri* 3rd
Persuasive - Sofia Sistilli 4th
Prose Hansika Yanamadala* 4th
News - Harshini Sivakumar* & Pari Varshney* 6th

Debate Quarterfinalists (top 8)
Parliamentary - Harrison Barker & Anh Pham*
Lincoln Douglas - Pritika Gupta*

Debate Octofinalists (top 10)
Public Forum - Nikhil Chandran & Vik Kamat*

Speech Semifinalists (Top 12)
Prose - Finn Stafford*
Dramatic Interpretation - Sal Crawford
Dramatic Interpretation - Kaaveri Patil*
Extemporaneous - Felix Chen
Persuasive - Tamira Ghattamneni

Qualifying, but Non-advancing students included:
Cross-Examination Debate - Izzy Lin & Zahra Khan
Cross-Examination Debate - Meera Alabed & Ahana Mendhi
Lincoln Douglas Debate - Medha Misra*
Lincoln Douglas Debate - Jeffrey Zhang
Lincoln Douglas Debate - Jasper Clark
Public Forum Debate - Mana Barimani & Niki Botre*
Public Forum Debate - Maria Alfredson-Themudo & Suhavi Singh
Public Forum Debate - Conrad Davis & Enoch Katru
Parliamentary Debate - Aaron Jiang & Sid Kumar
Parliamentary Debate - Rihaj Odari & Zubeir Khan
Extemporaneous Debate - Aadi Kaushik
Extemporaneous Debate - Roshan Senthilkumar
Senate - Mahi Thacker*
Senate - Sofiya Gorban
Senate - Aryajeet Tatipamula
House - Rohith Kumar
Informative - Hannah Rideout
Commentary - Antara Mondal
Impromptu - Ishaan Gupta
Program Oral Interpretation - Anushka Sen
Storytelling - Hope Rideout

* indicates qualifying through earning three bids at local tournaments during the season.