For the third straight year, the Bellarmine Bells Speech and Debate Team is first in the nation based on total sweepstakes points, and earning the School of Outstanding Distinction Award.
The Bells, who finished a week-long tournament in Phoenix, Arizona on June 16 for Nationals, were able to top their performance from last year, which was one of Bellarmine’s most impressive performances as over 20 people made it to elimination rounds. “This year, we had a similar performance, with 21 out of our 30 competitors making it to elimination rounds and 10 of those competitors making it into the top 14 in the country,” noted Aaron Langerman ‘11, head coach. “In addition, many of our competitors who were ranked top in the country are all juniors and have now auto-qualified to the National Tournament for next summer.”
Congratulations to the following student competitors:
- Informative Speaking (Info/Expos):
- Gavin Griffin ’24 – 3rd place finalist. Since Gavin is in the top 14, he has earned an auto-qualifier to attend next year’s Nationals!
- Owen Botkin ‘23 – Quarterfinals (top 30)
- International Extemp (IX):
- Rohit Vakkalagadda ’24 – 3rd place finalist. Since Rohit is in the top 14, he has earned an auto-qualifier to attend next year’s Nationals!
- Policy Debate
- Andrew Huang and Shae McInnis ’24 – 7th place. Since they were in the top 14, they have earned an auto-qualifier to attend next year’s Nationals!
- Nihaal Konda and Jeremy Wang ‘23 – 9th place. Nihaal was ranked the 2nd best speaker of the tournament and Jeremy was 7th.
- Surya Krishnapillai and Rohan Lingam ‘24 – 12th place. Rohan was also ranked the TOP 1st place speaker of the entire tournament! And since they were in the top 14, they have earned an auto-qualifier to attend next year’s Nationals.
- Lincoln-Douglas (LD) Debate:
- Casey Chen ‘23 – 10th place
- Arshon Keyani ‘23 – top 50
- Abhishek Rao ’24 – top 70
- Congressional Debate:
- Varun Vemualpalli ’23 – Finalist (Senate)
- Arnav Dhingra ’23 – Semifinalist (House)
- Akilan Dorairaj ’24 – Semifinalist (House)
- Aswin Surya ’24 – Semifinalist (House)
- Neil Alappatt ’26 – Semifinalist (House)
- Stanton Nowinski ’23 – Quarterfinalist (House)
- Original Oratory (OO):
- Saketh Dasaradhi ‘24 – Quarterfinals (top 30) •
- US Extemp (USX/NX):
- Zane Hensley ‘24 – Octafinals (top 60)
- World Schools:
- Peter Ly ‘23 – Double Octafinals
Much gratitude to the dedicated and talented Speech and Debate coaches: Aaron Langerman ‘11, Dr. DeeDee Sullivan, Matt DeLateur ‘12, Vern Cleary, Xavier Liu ’17, Adarsh Hiremath ‘21, Tyler Vergho ‘19, and Nathan Kang ‘22. Special thanks, also, to Rohan Dhoopar ‘15 and Ankur Mahesh ’15 for taking time to provide valuable online assistance during the recent Nationals in Phoenix.