For the fourth year in a row, Bellarmine College Preparatory Speech and Debate is the top team in the nation with total sweepstakes points at the National Speech & Debate Association (NSDA) Nationals and have earned the School of Outstanding Distinction Award. The Greater Des Moines Nationals took place June 16-21.
According to Aaron Langerman ’11, Bellarmine’s head speech and debate coach, the margin between Bellarmine’s team and the second-place school was the largest it has ever been as the Bells catapulted past every one of their previous records. “In 2022, we won Nationals with 152 sweepstakes points,” noted Langerman. “In 2023, we won with 162 points. This year, with 29 students making it deep into elimination rounds, we nearly doubled those totals with 308 points!”
The following ten schools received the School of Outstanding Distinction Award, which is given to the top ten schools who earned the most cumulative sweepstakes points across both speech and debate events. Here are the ten schools and the total sweepstakes points that they earned:
- Bellarmine College Prep – 308 points
- Archbishop Mitty – 182 points
- Durham Academy – 109 points
- Lincoln East High School – 95 points
- Leland High School – 94 points
- Seven Lakes High School – 84 points
- Plano West Sr. High School – 68 points
- The Hawken School – 66 points
- James Logan High School – 58 points
- American Heritage Broward School – 51 points
The following is a list of students and their tournament achievements. “Special kudos go to this senior class of 2024,” noted Langerman. “Every senior who competed this week not only broke to elimination rounds; they made it to either semifinals or finals in their events.”
Policy Debate:
- Surya Krishnapillai ’24 / Rohan Lingam ’24 and Andrew Huang ’24 / Shae McInnis ’24 – 1st place co-champions who closed out finals together. “This is the third time in NSDA history a close-out has ever happened, and the first time Bellarmine has ever closed out policy debate finals, so this is a huge historical achievement,” noted Langerman. “In addition to winning the tournament, Andrew earned the 14th speaker award and Rohan earned the 12th speaker award.
- Andrew Wen ’24 and Arnav Aggarwal ’25 – 7th place. In addition, Andrew Wen earned the 5th place speaker award and Arnav earned the 2nd place speaker award.
- Shamit D’Souza ’25 and Samarjit Deshmukh ’25 – 13th place, earning an auto-qualification to Nationals next year.
- Aidan Okyar ’26 and Kevin Lu ’26 – 14th place, earning an auto-qualification to Nationals next year.
- Derek Qian ’25 and Arthur Tu ’25 – top 24
Lincoln-Douglas (LD) Debate:
- Abhishek Rao ’24 – 4th place (only Matt DeLateur ’12 and Eric Gottlieb ’21 have made it into the top 4 in LD in Bellarmine history). Abhishek also earned the 6th place speaker award.
- Elliott Barringer ’26 – 12th place, earning him an auto-qualification for Nationals next year.
- Caleb Wang ’26 – top 22.
Congressional Debate:
- Vincent Nguyen ’25 – 12th place finalist in the Senate, earning an auto-qualification to Nationals next year.
- Akilan Dorairaj ’24 – 12th place finalist in the House.
- Vedant Hathalia ’27 – finalist in the House.
- Ilesh Sundar ’26 – semifinalist in the House.
- Akshar Ammu ’25 – quarterfinalist in the House.
International Extemp:
- Rohit Vakkalagadda ’24 – 2nd place finalist and his second time making it to NSDA finals in IX.
- Thomas Guo ’26 – semifinalist (top 14), earning an auto-qualification to Nationals next year.
- Neil Alappatt ’26 – quarterfinalist (top 30).
- Abhijay Rana ’25 – octofinalist (top 60).
United States Extemp:
- Zane Hensley ’24 – semifinalist (top 14).
- Aadi Chauhan ’25 – octofinalist (top 60).
Original Oratory:
- Angad Singh ’25 – 5th place finalist, earning an auto-qualification to Nationals next year. . Angad is the first OOer Bellarmine has had make it to finals since the 1990s when Anton Ford became a national champion.
- Brian Zhao ’25 – quarterfinalist (top 30).
Informative Speaking:
- Gavin Griffin ’24 – semifinalist (top 14).
In addition to the coaches and three parent volunteers, Bellarmine had four young alumni assist with judging and coaching: Ram Gorthi ’22, Akhil Iyengar ’22, Ben Manens ’22, and Nimai Talur ’22.
Congratulations to all, and to coaches Aaron Langerman ‘11, DeeDee Sullivan, Xavier Liu ‘17, Matt DeLateur ’12, Vern Cleary, Tyler Vergho ‘19, and Adarsh Hiremath ‘21.