The Bridgewater-Raritan High School Speech and Debate Team won many awards while competing in their respective categories at Basking Ridge High School in the Ridge Invitational on January 27.
The awards consisted of Abhijay Edavalapati, Veda Viswanath and Roshan Dave winning first, fifth and sixth place respectively in Varsity Congress. Ridhi Pothu won 3rd place in Informative Speaking. In Novice Lincoln-Douglas Debate, Sophia Liu won second place and Ovia Dushyanthan won sixth.
In Varsity Lincoln-Douglas Debate, Saanvi Goel won sixth place. In Novice Public-Forum Debate, Om Shah and Rithvik Krish won second place, Esha Bande and Gayatri Krishnan won sixth. In Junior Varsity Public Forum Debate, Ayushmaan Mukherjee and Saraansh Rawat won sixth place.
This was one of the first competitions for the debate team and success has shown the growth in the team’s performances.
Abhijay Edavalapati, varsity captain of the club, had a few words to say regarding this competition for the forensics team.
“The Ridge Invitational provided an opportunity to assess the effectiveness of our strategies and identify areas for improvement moving forward. Reflecting on our performance, we recognize the need to further refine our argumentation techniques and enhance our strategic adaptability,” he said. “Additionally, we aim to diversify our preparation methods to ensure we’re able to tackle a broader range of topics.”
Edavalapati went on to explain the team’s accomplishments.
“We’re proud to have consistently secured sweepstakes awards at various tournaments, with our most recent accomplishment being second place at the Ridge Invitational,” he said.
The next competition for the debate team will take place on Saturday, February 24, at Montville High School.
