Courtesy of Zachary Stenglein

Crushing opponents, Ishan Sharma ‘24 and Ayush Triphathi ‘24 compete in their Policy Debate tournament. The two emerged victorious in both their tournaments at Greenhill and the Texas Forensic Association, representing the best of debate’s dedication.

Beginning their season strong, debate has crushed opponents in recent competitions full-out, winning a number of TFA (Texas Forensic Association) and TOC (Tournament of Champions) competitions since the start of September. In addition, on Sept. 25, Westwood won the Pentagon Club from the National Speech and Debate Association (NSDA). This honorable award is reserved solely for debate programs ranked in the top 20 nationally. 

Currently, Westwood is ranked 3rd with a strength of 408. Strength takes into account characteristics such as merit, honor, and excellence, which then translates into points. Students are also ranked nationally according to points; at present, Westwood has six students ranked in the top 100 for all debate events. 

“[NSDA’s] ranking system is based on competitive success and level of competition. That’s based on a real points system, so every debate you win you get six points and every debate you lose is minus 3 points,” debate coach Dominic Henderson said. “Somebody could do a lot of competitions and not do so well and still rise up in the ranks. So, it isn’t an entirely true system but it’s the best we have.”

Not only has Westwood won the Pentagon Club award, but students have also been winning tournament after tournament. Anushka Gupta ‘26 won her Extemporaneous Speaking TOC event at Greenhill on Sep. 15. Ishan Sharma ‘24 and Ayush Triphathi ‘24 won their Policy Debate at Greenhill as well, and a week later, their TFA event at Westwood. Unlike sports, which have specific start and end dates for the season, debate’s prolonged season starts early and stretches into the beginning of summer break. The season is long, and events usually last three to four months.

“I think we’ve started the season well,” Henderson said. “Our first event was the second week of school and the last is the second week of June. So, categorizing the first month is relative.”

At Greenhill and other debate tournaments, students undergo a series of preliminary rounds until they advance to the final round. Tournaments often have four to seven preliminary rounds, depending on the amount of students per event. 

“[At] local tournaments, there are usually 25 or 30 people, maybe even 50, so there will be four preliminary rounds. Regional tournaments are going to have 120 competitors,” Henderson said. 

A type of debate tournament called the “round-robin”, uses the coaches’ pull instead of having preliminary rounds and advancing into a bracket, like in the famous Glenburg tournament. 

“[These tournaments are] done by the coaches’ pull, and the 14 best debate teams in the country were selected, Westwood being one of them,” Henderson said. “The teams were split into two pools of seven, then took the best teams from each pool. For the final round, we debated Montgomery Bell Academy.”

This weekend, Westwood will be attending a tournament at LC Anderson. 

“In two of the divisions, I think our debaters will be the only ones to advance to the next division. That’s how dominant I expect us to be this weekend,” Henderson said.