Ridge Forensics Invited To Tournament of Champions

BASKING RIDGE, NJ — The Ridge Forensics Speech & Debate Team kept their forward momentum in October by taking second place at the Annual Philipsburg Fall Invitational, as well as exceeding at the Annual New York City Invitational.

The finalists from the NYC Invitational received a bid - or invitation - to the prestigious Tournament of Champions to be held at the University of Kentucky in April.

They include: juniors Zoey Qin (Congressional Debate, 2nd), Aparna Iyer (Extemporaneous Speaking, 5th), and Aanvi Khade (Congressional Debate, 9th), and senior Aditya Rai (Congressional Debate, 13th).

The following students excelled in their performances at the Bronx tournament as well: junior Meera Shah (Varsity Lincoln Douglas Doubleoctofinalist) and junior Eva Chen (Varsity Lincoln Douglas Doubleoctofinalist).

Members of the team were also recognized for their strong speaking skills: junior Meera Shah (Speaking Score, 15th) and junior Eva Chen (Speaking Score, 24th). In Varsity Public Forum, sophomore Aditi Terli placed as 20th speaker, and sophomore Vivian Liu placed 30th.

Later in the month, the team opened the local competition circuit by competing at the Philipsburg Fall Spooktacular included. Champions included: senior Celine Huang (Original Oratory), juniors Hasini Namburi (Impromptu Speaking), Zoey Qin (Congress), and Siona Balawat (Varsity Lincoln Douglas), and sophomore Krish Kumar (Declamation).

The finalists included: sophomore Adalia Karda-Marok (Declamation, 2nd), junior Eva Chen (Varsity Lincoln Douglas, 3rd), sophomore Aarush Joginapally (Declamation, 3rd), junior Sameer Kandra (Varsity Lincoln Douglas, 4th), sophomore Anoushka Jasrai (Declamation, 4th), along with the teams of sophomore Naitik Narang and junior Shrey Sharma (Varsity Public Forum, 4th); senior Lucy Brodkin and junior Arnob Mitra (Varsity Parliamentary Debate, 5th); and sophomore Prabhav Kautickwar and sophomore Rishav Potrevu (Varsity Public Forum, 6th).

David Yastremski, director of the team, says: "These past two weeks have presented the team with strong early accomplishments. We need to keep our focus to create a successful year ahead."

The team is now preparing for the upcoming November tournaments: Scarsdale Invitational, Newark CFL #1, and Randolph Invitational.

— Ridge Forensics