Ridge Novice Debaters Named Co-Champions In Massachusetts

BASKING RIDGE, NJ — This past weekend, the Ridge Forensics speech & debate team split up and traveled to Florida and Massachusetts.

At the Lexington, Mass. Winter Invitational, freshmen Himnish Koul and Aryav Gaddam were named co-champions for Novice Lincoln Douglas Debate. Additionally, Himnish Koul was named Third Speaker and Aryav Gaddam was named Ninth Speaker.

Other stand-out performances were given by: senior Rebecca Davidov - Varsity Lincoln Douglas Debate - second Speaker & Quarterfinalist; juniors Sameer Kandra - Varsity Lincoln Douglas Debate - Octofinalist, Kuber Sarwal and sophomore Advik Sateeja - Varsity Public Forum Debate - Double-Octofinalists; Sophomore Sameer Kandra - Varsity Lincoln Douglas Debate - Ninth Speaker; freshmen Anya Animesh - Novice Lincoln Douglas Debate - Quarterfinalist, Anya Hira - Novice Public Forum Debate - Sixth Speaker, Rosa Qin - Novice Lincoln Douglas Debate - Quarterfinalist, Rushil Jha - Novice Lincoln Douglas Debate - Fifth Speaker & Quarterfinalist, Aditi Terli (Eighth Speaker) and Vivian Liu - Novice Public Forum Debate - Octofinalists, Anya Hira and sophomore Anvi Sharma - Novice Public Forum Debate - Octofinalists, Ishani Butala and Tulasi Bonda - Novice Public Forum Debate - Octofinalists, Rishav Potrevu and Charan Pyloore - Novice Public Forum Debate - Double-Octofinalists, Rhea Vasanthavada and Krish Kumar - Novice Public Forum Debate - Double-Octofinalists, Matthew Li and sophomore Shrey Sharma - Varsity Public Forum Debate - Runoffs and Anya Animesh - Novice Lincoln Douglas Debate - Eighth Speaker.

In the Sunshine State at Sunvite, junior Ami Singh became a triple-finalist in Impromptu Speaking (fifth place), Informative Speaking (fifth place) and Duo Interpretation with fellow junior Aayush Bhakey (fourth place) and Jia Aggarwal - Congressional Debate - 12th. Additional impressive performances were given by: seniors Natalie Ramirez - Programmed Oral Interpretation - 3rd, Alyssa Kim - Dramatic Interpretation - 4th, Amy Cao - Extemporaneous Speaking - Semifinalist & Original Oratory - Quarterfinalist, Anjali Dadlani - Humorous Interpretation - Semifinalist, Ginny Kim - Congressional Debate - Semifinalist; Juniors Aparna Iyer - Extemporaneous Speaking - 2nd & Original Oratory - Quarterfinalist, Saketha Kedarsetty - Impromptu Speaking - 3rd, Sky Rose-Jaaman - Original Oratory - 6th, Navya Raju - Extemporaneous Speaking - Semifinalist, Celine Huang - Original Oratory - Semifinalist, Aditya Rai - Congressional Debate - Semifinalist, Sameer Wadhwa - Extemporaneous Speaking - Quarterfinalist, James Mathai - Original Oratory - Quarterfinalist; sophomores Faye Fletcher - Programmed Oral Interpretation - 4th & Dramatic Interpretation - semifinalist.

“Competing against students from other areas of the country is an excellent way for our team to learn from new competitors and, ultimately, improve their own skills. We look forward to our upcoming events at Harvard and UPenn next month,” says Director Dave Yastremski.

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