Just a couple weeks after our amazing State Qualifying season was over, the MSD Monarchs geared up again for the first National Qualifications tournament of the year. After qualifying 12 students to Nationals last year, would we be able to send even more people to the National Tournament in Salt Lake City, Utah, this year?! Let’s find out...
Our Policy and Public Forum debaters kicked off the weekend of competition at Bellarmine College Preparatory, starting Friday, March 18th, after school. On Saturday morning, the speech kids joined the party.
Just a casual photo shoot between rounds...
In debate, congrats to Ismail Shaik/ Pranav Govindaraju and Robbie Gallaher/Amulya Yerrapotu for advancing to the second day in Policy Debate, and a special congratulations to Rahul Devarapalli & Teja Veeramacheni for advancing to the final round in Policy Debate! In Public Forum, congrats to Jahnavi Singh/Aditya Gunda for advancing to the second day in Public Forum and a special congratulations to Koji Flynn-Do/Jolie Leung for advancing to the final round in Public Forum!
On the speech side of things, after the first day, every speech competitor advanced to the semifinal round in at least one of their events! A special congratulations to the students advancing to the final round in their respective events: Samuel Mesfin, Jocelyn Woods, and Paige Decena in DI; Pranavi Javangula, Arjun Biju, and Rose Bueno in HI; Amelia Whitney and Nini Bhat in POI; Amelia Whitney / Olivia Monroy in Duo, Bharathi Arasan & Seher Randhawa in Expos, Pranav Govindaraju in NX, and Robbie Gallaher in IX!
Everyone went ALL IN on their final rounds, and then came the long-anticipated awards ceremony...
Congratulations to our 11 students who will be competing at the National Tournament in June!
Sophomore qualifiers, Jolie Leung (Public Forum Debate), Olivia Monroy (Duo Interp), and Amelia Whitney, who placed first in Program Oral Interp and qualified in two events!
Juniors Koji Flynn-Do (Public Forum Debate), Arjun Biju (Humorous Interp), and Seher Randhawa (Informative Speaking) also qualified to the National Championships, with the latter two winning their respective events.
Lastly, congratulations to our senior qualifiers - Rose Bueno (Humorous Interp), Bharathi Arasan (Informative Speaking), Niharika Bhat (Program Oral Interp), Jocelyn Woods (Dramatic Interp), and Samuel Mesfin, who placed first in Dramatic Interp!
Special congratulations to Koji and Jolie for being Mitty Speech and Debate's FIRST EVER National Qualifiers in Public Forum!
Fab Five and Coaches!
Nat Quals squad after an incredibly successful tournament!
After a great first National Qualifications tournament, we had just one more Qualifications tournament to go. Two weekends later came our final Nat Quals of 2016: Congress!
Suits, ties, prep-- check!
Mitty slayed the game, taking 3 out of the 4 available spots at the National Qualification Tournament in Congressional Debate! Congrats to Akaash, Ismail, and Pranav for qualifying to Nationals. The Monarchs also won the sweepstakes award in Congress!
Mitty qualified 14 students to the National Tournament so far (not including World's Debate-- keep an eye out for that!), which is a record for the Mitty Speech and Debate Team!
As our qualifications season has come to an end, we are so proud of everyone for making it such a memorable and exciting experience for our team. We are very grateful for everyone--parents, teammates, and administration, who have been so supportive of us as our team grows to reach new heights! The qualifying season may be over, but State is just around the corner. Who's ready to add another team record to our roster?
State 2016...here we come. This is not when we hide, it's when we ROAR!
