Nine Bells traveled to Dallas, Texas to compete in the National Speech and Debate Tournament where their combined efforts landed Bellarmine the award of School of Outstanding Distinction, which is given to the top 10 schools in the nation!
Congratulations to the following students on their achievements:
International extemp:
Anuj Kothari ’20 – 10th place (semifinalist)
Lincoln-Douglas Debate:
In LD debate, both of our senior captains — Ashwin Pillai ’19 and Rishi Balakrishnan ’19 — individually advanced to round 9 of the tournament, thus being ranked in the top 60 in the nation. A great end to their careers!!
Policy Debate:
Tyler Vergho ’19 and Abhishek Rengarajan ’19 — 6th place – An incredible finish to a superb year! In addition to being ranked 6th place as a team, Tyler and Abhi as individual speaking awards for their polish as orators in debate rounds: Abhi was ranked the 8th best speaker and Tyler was ranked 5th best speaker in policy debate (independent of their wins and losses as a team).
Surya Midha ’21 and Adarsh Hiremath ’21 — 8th place – By being ranked in the top 14th in the nation, Surya and Adarsh have earned an auto-qualification to attend Nationals next year in policy Debate.
Arnav Bhau ’20 and Jay VIshwarupe ’20 – By advancing to round 10, Arnav and Jay are ranked in the top 30 (advancing to round 10).