The Bridgewater-Raritan High School Forensics Speech and Debate Team attended its first tournament of the season on Saturday, October 25, at Phillipsburg High School.
Over 44 students from Bridgewater-Raritan attended, with other competitors from numerous other New Jersey high schools.
The Forensics Club focuses on enhancing public speaking, critical thinking, communication, and leadership skills for all its members. Throughout the year, various competition categories are offered for this purpose, including speech events such as Oral Interpretation, Extemporaneous, Impromptu, and Original Oratory. Debate events include Lincoln-Douglas (LD), Public Forum (PF), Congress, and Parliamentary Debate.
Competitors in debate categories, specifically Lincoln-Douglas and Public Forum, were divided into three competition levels based on prior experience: Novice, Junior Varsity, and Varsity. For all other categories, participants were divided into either Novice or Varsity.
Participants went through multiple rounds in their respective categories throughout the entire day, putting their hard work and preparation to the test. During the evening’s award ceremony, competitors who ‘broke’, which means achieving a certain number of wins, were announced.
Numerous Bridgewater-Raritan studeentt competitors broke, earning an award for their achievement. Novice Congress Debater, Arav Jain; Novice LD Debater, Advik Narasimhan; Novice PF Debaters, Aria Mahajan and Avik Dutta; JV LD Debater, Mythili Madhusoodanan; JV PF Debaters, Rishi Khanna and Mohnish Gumedelli; Varsity Speech Competitor, Arnav Saravana Kumar; Varsity Speech Competitor, Anay Gade; Varsity LD Debater, Arnav Dham; and Varsity Parliamentary Debaters, Hrishi Patel and Marko Gvozdenovic all broke.
Sophomore and PF Debater Rishi Khanna, who placed fifth in the JV category alongside his partner Mohnish Gumedelli, expressed his thoughts on the event.
“Phillipsburg was a really fun experience, and it was cool to hit the ground running and break at my and Mohnish’s first local tournament together.”
After a remarkable start to the season, the Bridgewater-Raritan Forensics Club plans to continue the momentum and success of its members at the next event held at Randolph High School on Saturday, November 15. With many tournaments scheduled for the season, the team’s success at Phillipsburg marks members’ passion for public speaking and argumentation, as well as dedication to continuous improvement.
