Last weekend, the Westwood Speech and Debate Team participated in the La Vernia and Grapevine High School tournament, returning with huge success.

However, along with the victory came many challenges, one of which were the judges. La Vernia, in San Antonio, was very different from tournaments here at Austin. The students did not know what to expect, and did not anticipate a different way of judging. Normally they would have known which points to argue over in order to win the judge over, but this tournament proved to be a challenge. Despite this, Westwood students were able to pull through with success.

“It was sometimes really challenging because we had to adapt to the judges there, because they were quite different,” said Cross Examination Quarter-finalist Jitendra Gudlavalleti ‘18.

The students managed to fight back and continue to strive for excellence. Many students were able to adapt to their judges and do very well overall, with many teams and individuals placing.

“It felt really good to be a Quarter-finalist, because last year was a completely different year, where I did not get to debate in tournaments, but this year I came in strong and I was really happy with myself,” Gudlavalleti said.

Domestic Extemporaneous Speaking

Semi-finalist:

Sonali Mitra ‘17

Foreign Extemporaneous Speaking

Semi-finalists:

Ethan Brown ‘17

Aditya Tewari ‘17

Varsity Cross Examination (Policy) Debate

First Place:

Arjun Jain ‘18 & Niti Malwade ‘18

Quarter-finalists (Top 8):

Katherine Alexander ‘17 & Anjali Venkatesh ‘17

Andrew Lu ‘18 & Jitendra Gudlavalleti ‘18

Varsity Lincoln Douglas (LD) Debate

Quarter-finalists (Top 8):

Stephanie Andrew ‘18

Double Octo-finalist (Top 32) Grapevine:

Saavan Nanavati ‘17

Public Forum (PF) Debate

Second Place:

Roshni Rawal ‘17 & Ramya Yedatore ’17