Ridge Speech, Debate Team Wins 21st Consecutive State Championship

BASKING RIDGE, NJ — The Ridge Forensics Team, Ridge High School's interscholastic speech and debate program, achieved its 21st consecutive Overall Team Championship title this month at the 2023 New Jersey Speech and Debate League's State Championship held at the Hunterdon Central Regional High School.

The team, comprised of 70 students who qualified for the event, took the state title with 325 points, followed by Summit High School in 2nd place, and Montville Township in 3rd. Millburn, Bridgewater Raritan, and Phillipsburg rounded out the top six.

"It was wonderful to see the energy, dedication, and community of this team come together. New Jersey has several nationally-ranked teams, and we knew going in that several teams were contending for the top spot," said Director of Ridge Forensics, David Yastremski. "I am so proud of the effort and talent these students dedicated to making sure we held our title as State Champions for the 21st consecutive year."

Several Ridge students were named State Champions in their events: Mannan Pandey in Declamation, Diya Jain in International Extemporaneous Speaking, Kevin Li in Domestic Extemporaneous Speaking, Natalie Ramirez in Program Oral Interpretation, and the team of Pranav Mahesh and Andrew Cui in Junior Varsity Public Forum Debate.

State runners-up, who took second place titles, included Abby Lee in Original Oratory and Impromptu Speaking, Faye Fletcher in Oral Interpretation, Amy Cao in International Extemporaneous Speaking, Navya Raju in Domestic Extemporaneous Speaking, Meera Shukla in Varsity Lincoln Douglas Debate, and the team of Vivian Zhu and Akhil Khade in Varsity Public Forum Debate.

Other finalists and elimination round participants included seniors Minaal Kauser, Shree Manivel, Michael Moschello, Shruti Narayanabhatla, Ashwin Sasane, Jocelyn Tan, and Akhil Vanka; juniors Grace Aulicino, Mariam Khan, Alyssa Kim, Ginny Kim, and Mimi Petric; sophomores Sameer Bagga, Aayush Bhakey, Lucy Brodkin, Maryam Faizan, Shaurya Ganjoo, Sky Rose Jaaman, Srija Kasarla, Saketha Kedarsetty, Aditya Rai, Kuber Sarwal, Sujay Sethi, Matthew Sherman, Ami Singh, and Sameer Wadhwa; and freshmen Eden Chacko, Eva Chen, MJ Chu, Milie Gupta, Aparna Iyer, Arnob Mitra, Arnav Patel, and Anya Wang.

Students who won state championships will receive a scholarship from the New Jersey Speech and Debate League, and those champions at the varsity level will be presented a 2023 Governor's Award in Arts Education from the New Jersey Arts Education Partnership.

The Ridge Team will be competing this season at upcoming grand nationals including the Tournament of Champions, the National Catholic Forensics League tournament, and the National Speech and Debate Association tournament. Nine students have already qualified for the NSDA National Championship which will be held in Louisville, Kentucky in June: Abigail Lee in Original Oratory, Amy Cao in Congressional Debate and International Extemporaneous Speaking, Eva Chen in International Extemporaneous Speaking, Aparna Iyer in Domestic Extemporaneous Speaking, Navya Raju in Domestic Extemporaneous Speaking, Vivian Zhu in World Schools Debate, Ginny Kim in World Schools Debate, Natalie Ramirez in Program Oral Interpretation, and Anjali Dadlani in Program Oral Interpretation.

— Submitted by Ridge Forensics Team Assistant Coach Daniel Norris