At the University of Kentucky’s 2023 Tournament of Champions, held earlier this month, senior Muzzi Khan won the national championship in Lincoln-Douglas Debate. The topic was “Resolved: Justice requires open borders for human migration.” After an excellent preliminary record, Khan went on to win five single elimination rounds. In the final round, he successfully defended the affirmative side of the resolution against a team from Strake Jesuit in Houston. Harker also won the National Debate Coaches Association national championship, making it only the third time in history that a team has won both titles in the same year.
Several other students also had excellent showings at the tournament. Gordy Sun, grade 11, was named second in the nation in extemporaneous speaking. Fellow junior Daniel Lin was a finalist in congressional debate. The duo of Sasha Masson and Adrian Liu, both juniors, made it to the elimination rounds of public forum debate. Dyllan Han, grade 11, and Joy Hu, grade 9, won awards in original oratory. Lastly, juniors Ansh Sheth and Kabir Buch advanced in Lincoln Douglas debate.
Because qualifying for the Tournament of Champions is a difficult task, coaches expressed their pride in the following participants who competed in a variety of speech and debate events: Michelle Jin and Carol Wininger, grade 12; Iris Fu, Panav Gogte, Ariav Misra, Max Xing and Fiona Yan, grade 11; Robert Fields, Jacqueline Huang, Kashish Priyam, Ruhan Sahasi, Veer Shasi and Jason Shim, grade 10; and Roshan Amurthur, Pavitra Kasthuri and Sofia Shah, grade 9.
After a four-way closeout, seniors Muzzi Khan and Rahul Mulpuri and juniors Ansh Sheth and Panav Gogte were declared the National Debate Coaches Association’s Lincoln-Douglas co-champions this week, making Harker the national Lincoln-Douglas champion for the third consecutive year. In another exciting development, Harker was presented with the Leading Chapter Award by the National Speech and Debate Association for consistently being the top program over the last decade, spanning 2012-2022. “I’m proud when the students win individual awards but especially love these team wide recognitions, because the record of every debater and speaker since 2012 contributed,” said Jenny Achten, speech and debate department chair. “I’m so grateful for the support the team receives from the school and the outstanding group of coaches I get to work alongside.”
This past weekend, speech and debate coach Greg Achten was inducted into the Emory University Barkley Forum’s Gold Key Society, which was founded in 1964 to honor successful high school debate coaches. Existing members of the society select coaches to be inducted, which takes place at a ceremony during the Barkley Forum for High Schools Tournament. To date, 204 coaches have been inducted, including Harker coach Jenny Achten, a 2007 inductee.
Upper school debate teacher Greg Achten was recently elected to the executive board of the National Debate Coaches Association. All members of the organization are eligible to vote for the nine-member board. It is a national organization dedicated to supporting best practices in the debate community. The organization hosts one of the national championships and supports new programs with debate curriculum and research support. Achten’s years of community service, especially his expertise in running tournaments, were contributors to his election success. Additional details can be found at the NDCA website.
This story was submitted by Harker speech and debate chair Jenny Achten.
Senior Rahul Mulpuri won first place at the prestigious Greenhill Round Robin in September. Only the top 12 Lincoln-Douglas debaters in the nation are invited to the round robin, and winning it is very difficult. Mulpuri was invited due to his semifinal finish at nationals last year. The topic of the debate was whether or not the United States ought to adopt a single-payer health care system. Speech and debate coaches expressed excitement over Mulpuri’s start to the season!
The upper school and middle school speech and debate teams have had great second-semester results at major end-of-year championships.
At the elite Upper School Tournament of Champions, Harker experienced success in a number of events. Students have to place highly at regular season tournaments to even qualify to compete. Recent graduate Anshul Reddy was a finalist in Lincoln-Douglas debate, making him second overall in the nation! Carol Wininger, grade 11, and Max Xing, grade 10, were in the finals of the public forum debate silver division. Michelle Jin, grade 11, was second in extemporaneous speaking. Rahul Mulpuri, grade 11, finished in the semis of Lincoln-Douglas, as did Class of 2022 member William Chien in extemporaneous and Dyllan Han, grade 11, in original oratory. Arissa Huda, grade 11, and Ariav Misra, grade 10, advanced in congressional debate.
The middle school team also shined at their division of the Tournament of Champions. Joy Hu, grade 8, was the national champion in extemporaneous speaking and Sofia Shah, grade 8, was the Lincoln-Douglas debate champion! Pavitra Kasthuri, grade 8, was in the finals of both extemporaneous speaking and impromptu. Hu was also in the finals of impromptu. Shloka Chawla, grade 8, and seventh graders Ameera Ramzan, Phoebe Lee and Tarush Gupta were also in impromptu elimination rounds. Evan Yuan, grade 7, was in congressional debate elimination rounds. Danielle Steinbach, grade 8, and Sanjith Senthil, grade 7, advanced in Lincoln-Douglas, as did the eighth grade public forum duo of Kairui Sun and Roshan Amurthur.
The upper school also had good results at the California State Speech tournament. As with all speech and debate tournaments, State is not divided by school classification, so it is one large pool for all those who participate. Sara Wan, grade 11, was second in impromptu speaking, Zubin Khera, grade 11, was fifth in original oratory and William Chien ’22 was in finals of extemporaneous speaking. Austina Xu, grade 11, was in the semifinals of oratorical interpretation and Dyllan Han was also in semifinals of original oratory.
There is one last event for the upper school speech and congressional debaters, as well as the middle school team, this June at the National Speech & Debate Association Championships. The only result that has been released ahead of time is that William Chien was named the California Coast District Student of the Year for his excellent performances and positive impact on the larger speech and debate community. The coaches are very proud of the hard work put in by all of the students.
This story was submitted by Harker speech and debate chair Jenny Achten.
Last weekend, senior Anshul Reddy won the prestigious National Debate Coaches Association Championship, one of the big three speech and debate championships attended by teams from across the United States. Reddy had a perfect record in preliminary rounds and lost just one ballot in elimination rounds. The national topic was “Resolved: The appropriation of outer space by private entities is unjust.” Senior Deven Shah, junior Muzzi Khan and sophomore Kabir Buch also qualified for Lincoln-Douglas elimination rounds. Junior Carol Wininger and sophomores Max Xing, Sasha Masson and Adrian Liu represented Harker in public forum debate elimination rounds, debating the desirability of organic agriculture.
Last month, Harker won the overall sweepstakes award at a speech and debate tournament held at the University of California, Berkeley. The team is particularly proud of this award, as it reflects the combined record of all of the over 100 upper and middle School students who participated. Every good ranking or win added to the total, which reflected the students’ effort toward achieving the same goal. This tournament is the largest invitational in the country, and winning the sweepstakes is a major goal for the team. Teams at both campuses enjoyed ice cream socials to celebrate. “The coaches are very proud of how resilient the students have been during online events,” said Jenny Achten, speech and debate department chair. “We look forward to getting back to traveling in person to tournaments soon.”
Harker speech and debate has had a wonderful first semester. Across 16 tournaments, students in all of the events have earned prestigious awards. Speech and debate is unique in that there are not just regional competitions, nor are schools put into divisions by size. Nearly all tournaments are open for national entries, and Harker attends the toughest events in the country. The coaches have been very proud of the resilience of and hard work put in by the students. The tournaments were still online, but the students have usually been able compete on campus.
Harker had a large number of students reach the final rounds of various tournaments with several championships. In Lincoln-Douglas (LD) debate, seniors Anshul Reddy and Deven Shah, as well as junior Rahul Mulpuri, have reached varsity final rounds, with Reddy and Shah being declared tournament champions. Their wins were especially impressive because each won an elite round robin for the top LD debaters in the nation. Additionally, Valerie Li, grade 9, won a novice tournament, and juniors Muzzi Khan, Annmaria Antony and Deeya Viradia, sophomores Ansh Sheth, Kabir Buch and Gordy Sun, and ninth graders Aarush Vailaya and Stefan Maxim have reached varsity elimination rounds. In junior varsity, Sahngwie Yim, grade 9, made it to elimination rounds. They debated on topics ranging from pharmaceutical patents to labor relations.
In the speech events, Harker had several outstanding performances. Sophomores Alex Fu and Ella Lan were in final rounds for informative speaking. In original oratory, juniors Dyllan Han and Zubin Khera reached the finals, as did sophomores Fiona Yan and Spencer Mak. Junior Michelle Jin impressed audiences in the finals with her extemporaneous speaking and impromptu skills. Juniors Jessica Zhou and Claire Jin, as well as freshman Kasish Priyam appeared in an impromptu final round. Senior William Chien also qualified for elimination rounds in extemporaneous speaking, as did juniors Sara Wan and Austina Xu in original oratory.
In public forum debate, seniors Vedant Kenkare and Caden Lin, junior Carol Wininger and sophomore Max Xing were in varsity elimination rounds. In junior varsity, sophomores Mariana Rai, Diya Mukherjee and Daphne Avkarogullari, and freshman Valerie Li also won awards. They debated about NATO protection for the Baltics and cryptocurrency regulation.
Finally, in Congressional debate, junior Arissa Huda represented the team in elimination rounds. She had to prepare against a wide variety of current events proposals. This semester, debate is looking forward to traveling to competitions in Berkeley, Nashville and Lexington, Ky., in addition to competing in more online events.
Harker had incredible results at the final speech and debate tournament of the season. The National Speech & Debate Association tournament took place online June 13-19. It is one of three major national championships. Thousands of students try to qualify to attend the tournament in each event, a few hundred are selected to compete, and only the top 16 competitors win awards. Harker had four students make it to their respective final rounds!
Rising senior William Chien was in the final round of domestic extemporaneous speaking and placed third. Chien said that his favorite thing about the experience was “meeting people from all across the country and getting to know their different backgrounds, ideas and perspectives.” Rising junior Michelle Jin was in the finals of international extemporaneous speaking and came in fifth. Jin commented that speech has helped her confidence, noting, “In [extemporaneous speaking], where you only have 30 minutes to organize your speech, you just have to trust yourself when you begin speaking.”
In congressional debate, recent graduate Andrew Sun placed third and was awarded the Leadership Bowl for Most Outstanding Legislator by his peers. Sun summed up his many years on the team, saying, “Speech and debate has been a defining part of my middle school and high school experience at Harker; I wouldn’t have it any other way!” Rising junior Arissa Huda also qualified to compete in congress.
In the middle school division, rising eighth grader Pavitra Kasthuri was a finalist in prepared prompt speaking.
Several Harker students were also named Academic All-American by the NSDA, placing them in the top 1 percent of student members in terms of speech and debate records and grade point averages. Recent graduates Andy Lee, Jason Lin, Akshay Manglik, Nathan Ohana and Andrew Sun, as well as rising seniors William Chien, Melody Luo, Deven Shah and Rohan Thakur were honored.
Harker coaches also received awards. Scott Odekirk was named an Educator of the Year! Only one to three coaches receive that award per year, out of thousands of coaches. Department Chair Jenny Achten was awarded a fourth Diamond, meaning that she has coached a large and successful team for 20 years.