The Mitty Speech and Debate Team had an amazing State and National Qualifications season over the past month. Let’s start with a recap of our very first State Quals tournament of the year: Public Forum and Parliamentary Debate!
Our debaters kicked off a busy weekend and started off our qualifications season after school at Leland High School on Friday, February 26th.
Some of the speech kids stopped by to send the debaters off!
Partners Akaash Tawade and Jonathan Pham share a moment of laughter.
Partners Ismail Shaik and Pranav Govindaraju share a moment of anti-social phone using. Kids these days.....
But of course, we couldn't start without a classic team circle!
After an incredibly tough two days of competition, we advanced 6 out of our 16 teams to the elimination rounds (after going 4-1 in prelims)-- the most breaks out of all the schools and a record made for Mitty Debate! We also had ever our first Public Forum breaks (3 out of 7 teams broke-- the most breaks out of all schools and another record for Mitty Debate!). Congratulations to Roshni/Rahul, Jahnavi/Dittu, and Amulya/Robbie for breaking to the first elimination round of Public Forum, and to Koji/Charlie for breaking to the first elimination round of Parliamentary Debate. After the first round, we had 2 teams still in, both in Parli— Jonathan/Akaash and Chiara/Vivek.
We lowkey ended up missing awards because we were too busy circling up again....
...but it was worth it for the life lessons we learned and shared with one another.
t the end of the day, missed awards ceremony aside, we ended the night with our first qualifiers to the 2016 state tournament: Chiara Caraccio and Vivek Thangam in Parliamentary Debate! Congratulations everyone!
Next up: Speech State Quals! The very next morning, the speech squad trickled in to Milpitas High School ready to make Mitty Speech and Debate history. And that, they did.
The speech competitors got together for a big pep talk before going into their first round!
As Mr. Cruz eloquently put it, “Teams that dab together, win together.”
The time soon came for breaks to semifinals! It was definitely a nerve wracking experience for everyone, and we’re very happy for our 51 students who advanced to the next round!
Live reaction seeing our teammates break to semis! So many hugs and so much love!
Trophies all lined up and ready for awards
After a tough semifinal round, it was time for the most stressful, exhilarating, wonderful awards ceremony of the year. Event by event, semi-finalists were called up to the stage and Mrs. Cruz counted down the alternates, and then the qualifiers as everyone else watched from the audience, rapt with attention.
At the end of the day, the squad finished strong. Mitty had the most IE State Qualifiers in the Coast Forensic League: 29 students! Absolutely amazing! Congratulations to the following 2016 IE State Qualifiers:
Dramatic Interpretation: Sam Mesfin (also won the tournament), Erica Johnson, and Kai Hynes.
Duo Interpretation: Paige / Max and Lucas / Piper.
Expository Speaking: Seher Randhawa.
Humorous Interpretation: Olivia Monroy, Conor Sherry, Klara Barbarossa, and Rose Bueno.
Impromptu: Amulya Yerrapotu.
International Extemp: Robin Gallaher, Jonathan Pham, and Ismail Shaik.
National Extemp: Charles Pyles and Koji Flynn-Do.
Oratorical Interpretation: Esha Bhatia.
Original Advocacy: Bharathi Arasan and Pranav Govindaraju.
Original Prose and Poetry: Arjun Biju and Pranavi Javangula.
Thematic Interpretation: Amelia Whitney, Colin Anderson, Jocelyn Woods, Niharika Bhat, and Madelyn Davis.
Next: Policy/LD State Quals! The following weekend, the monarchs brought their A game yet again to Santa Clara University ready to capture some more spots at State. After a busy first day, the debaters kicked off Friday night with some good food and good company. What they put IN is what they’ll get OUT on Saturday!
Animal fries for our policy BEASTS!
S/o to Culture Committee Chairs for helping distribute food to our judges! This activity would not be possible without our student volunteers and judges.
The next day, four of our policy teams and our one LDer made it to the final round. Congratulations to Jahnavi/Dittu, Pranav/Ismail, Rahul/Teja, Amulya/Robbie, and Jonathan Pham! After an incredibly difficult final round, congrats to Pranav and Ismail and Amulya and Robbie for qualifying to State in Policy Debate!
But the fight wasn't over just yet! That Sunday, our last but definitely not least State Quals took place at Leland High School: Congress! With their very last opportunity to qualify to State, our Congress kids went all in! Congratulations to Jahnavi and Jolie for becoming alternates and a special congratulations to Akaash and Siddhant for qualifying to State in Congress!
Our State Quals season may have come to end, but the Monarchs are nowhere near done! With 32 students competing at the State Tournament in just a week, Mitty we are incredibly happy for our team and all our qualifiers, and we can’t wait for the monarchs to BRING IT at State.