The Bridgewater-Raritan High School Speech and Debate Team recently participated in the 49th annual Speech and Debate tournament held at the University of Pennsylvania.

This national tournament lasted for three days, from February 9 to February 11, and was the first time in three years that the high school had competed at the Ivy League college that is located in Philadelphia.

With a total of 39 participants, 32 BRHS students competed in the debate events, including Lincoln-Douglas, Public Forum and Congressional Debate. Seven BRHS participants competed in the speech events of Declamation, Duo Interpretation, Informative Speaking and Original Oratory.

Out of the 39 participants, five students won awards at this national-level tournament.

In Congressional Debate, Abhijay Edavalapati placed fourth and Prisha Bagul placed tenth out of 96 participants in the category. Congressional Debate is a political emulation where 12–22 high school debaters role-play as senators and representatives, who each share their stances on American bills and policies.

In Varsity Public Forum (PF) Debate, the junior duo of Sameer Tijare and Andy Wang made it to the octofinals round, placing them in the top 16 out of the 150 entries in the category. PF is a debate event in which high school students have a two-on-two factual debate, affirmative or negative, on a global topic.

At the end of the tournament, the duo won a silver bid to the Tournament of Champions (TOC). The TOC is a national-level speech and debate tournament held at the University of Kentucky and considered the pinnacle of American high school debate tournaments.

Andy Wang reflected on his experience at the tournament.

“Honestly, it felt great [to win] because our work finally paid off. UPenn was a great experience,” he said.

In Novice Lincoln Douglas (LD) Debate, freshman Advika Prakash made it to the finals and won first place while competing with 47 other participants. LD is a debate event in which high school students have a one-on-one philosophical debate, affirmative or negative, on a global topic.

Prakash shared how she felt after winning.

“After the hard work, winning feels empowering and helped me set my future goals as a debater,” she said.

The next debate tournament will be the State Championships and the Districts tournament, both occurring in March.