Hey all. 32 incredibly focused members of the speech and debate team spent the last three days in Fullerton at the California State High School Speech and Debate Championships with happy results. 145 high schools were represented in three divisions of team competition; Bellarmine just fought hard for the win in the large school division against teams of as many as 55 or more. Special congratulations go to individual state champions Brian Stephan in National Extemporaneous, Nihaal Karnik in International Extemporaneous, Stephen Elrod in Dramatic Interpretation and the team of Brian Stephan and Evan Larson in Parliamentary Debate. Huge thanks go to Dee Dee Sullivan, Mike Meyer, and, as always, Chris Wolf, for putting in long hours and never losing their senses of humor. Special credit also goes to Jesse who, when all 32 received the answer “no” from me as to the possibility of a Disneyland stop, resisted the same full court press with success when asked to hijack the bus.

Full results are listed below. Thanks for your patience and support throughout our season that led to this group effort; they do well because you all have prepared them in many, many ways in many different classes. Kim for the coaches.

Impromptu

Will Rafey Third

International Extemp

Nihaal Karnik First

Nihar Shah Third

Vasant Ramachandran Tenth

National Extemp

Brian Stephan First

Evan Larson Second

Rustin Kashani Third

Original Oratory

Sagar Vijay Sixth

Chris Nguyen Ninth

Vikas Yendluri Sixteenth

Original Advocacy

Chip Morton Third

Expository

Kolby Hanson Eighth

Tim McKenzie Eleventh

Dramatic Interp

Stephen Elrod First

Congress

JP Padilla Second

Public Forum Debate

Vasant Ramachandran and Ryan Houston Octafinals

Parliamentary Debate

Brian Stephan and Evan Larson First

Lincoln Douglas Debate

Tim McKenzie Third

Arvind Kannan Octafinals

Chip Morton Octafinals

Policy Debate

Sahil Vora and Patrick Go Octafinals

Bryant Yang and Daniel Chung Octafinals

Sagar Vijay and Ani Deshmukh Semifinals

Biz Walia and Georgi Dimitrov Semifinals

Nate Wong and Nick Simmons Second

Sweepstakes

First Bellarmine College Prep 125 points

Second James Logan 118 points

Third Leland 91 points

Fourth Gabrielino 71 points

Fifth Fullerton ?