Bridgewater-Raritan High School’s Forensic Speech and Debate Club excelled at a speech and debate tournament with over 50 schools, including participants from New York and Pennsylvania, on January 24, at Ridge High School.

This tournament was a huge success, as 84 students from Bridgewater participated throughout the day in many speech and debate events, including Public Forum, Lincoln-Douglas, Parliamentary, Original Oratory, Impromptu Speaking, Extemporaneous Speaking, Declamation, and Congress.

Students achieved many placements and breaks on both the debate and speech sides.

On the debate side, many students placed and won trophies and medals in their categories. In Varsity Public Forum, Anik Shah and Marko Gvozdenovic placed 3rd, and Aarush Shah and Shantan Budamakayala also placed third In Junior Varsity Public Forum, Krish Srivastava and Yusuf Amin placed 3rd. In the Varsity Lincoln-Douglas debate, Arnav Dham placed 4th, while Dhitika Madduri and Ajay Dinesh both placed fifth. In Novice Lincoln-Douglas, Advik Narasimhan placed 6th. In the Parliamentary debate, Aviyai Bongu and Joshua Shobin placed 6th.

Regarding speech events, Tharun Naguleswaran placed fourth in Impromptu Speaking, with Anay Gade placing 8th and Arnav Saravanakumar placing ninth. Naguleswaran also finished sixth in Original Oratory. Anika Lal placed eighth in Extemporaneous Speaking. In Varsity Congress, Jadon Kim came in fifth place.

Even for students who did not place, every student from Bridgewater-Raritan High School put in hours of dedication and worked hard to improve their speech and debate skills. The tournament provided valuable experience, allowing students to challenge themselves, learn from strong competitors, and grow in confidence.

Bridgewater-Raritan Forensics attended a tournament at Pennsbury, Pennsylvania, from January 30 to February 1.