The Hathaway Brown Speech & Debate team made school history this weekend at the Ohio High School Speech League Cleveland District State Qualifying Tournament at Berea-Midpark High School. After a long day of competition on Saturday, February 7, 18 HB students will move on to statewide competition. Another eight students narrowly missed the cut by either one ranking or one ballot.
The Speech team will send nine students, predominantly freshmen, to the state tournament, which nearly doubles the school record of five.
- Annie Lewandowski '18 became the first HB student to qualify in Prose/Poetry.
- Molly Gleydura '18 and Lekha Medarametla '18 both qualified in Oratorical Interpretation.
- Sophie Sacks '18 and Divya Sasidhar '18 are the first HB students to qualify in Expository Speaking.
- Ananya Kalahasti '17 and Ela Passarelli '18 qualified in International Extemporaneous Speaking.
- Kavya Menon '16 earned her first trip to states in Humorous Interpretation.
- Kacey Gill '16 had a near perfect day to earn her second trip to states in Original Oratory.
The Debate team also had nine state qualifiers in three categories.
- Madeline Howarth '17 won two-thirds of her debates to join two-time state qualifier, Lydia Spencer '17, who pre-qualified to compete in Lincoln Douglas Debate.
- Morgan Austin '15, Talia Bhaiji '15, and Isha Lele '18 worked together to qualify in Congressional Debate. This is the fourth straight year that Austin and Bhaiji have reached the state tournament.
- The teams of Sam Keum '15 and Sunny Roy '15 and Aarathi Sahadevan '16 and Oriana Cruz '17 fought past tough competition in Public Forum Debate. This marks the third straight appearance in the state tournament for Sahadevan in this category, a first for HB. Keum, Roy, and Cruz will each be competing the tournament for the second time.
The number of HB students who will advance may still increase. HB Speech and Debate team members will have opportunities to reach the state tournament in the upcoming national qualifier rounds over the next two weekends.
Congratulations to the entire HB Speech and Debate team on a phenomenal season and good luck in the upcoming tournaments!
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