Unionville High School Speech and Debate Team typically participates in post-season tournaments, where students must qualify in order to attend. Because of COVID-19, two were canceled and two transitioned to virtual tournaments. We have listed the students who qualified for these tournaments below to recognize their hard work and achievements even though some of them won’t be able to compete.

 

The following students qualified for the 2020 Tournament of Champions hosted by the University of Kentucky. To qualify, students must earn a certain number of "bids" by demonstrating a high level of performance based on their final place at major invitational tournaments throughout the season: 

Congressional Debate
*Sebastian Tucker (2021)

Public Forum Debate
Darshak Gadagkar (2020)
*Manav Gundecha  (2021)
Naman Razdan (2021)
*Daisy Qiu  (2020)
Evan Wang  (2020)
Soumil Zachariah   (2021)

 Oral Interpretation: 
*Anju Zhang (2021) - Semifinalist

 * These students chose to participate in the tournament, which was held virtually in April. 

 

  

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The following students qualified to the NCFL Grand National Tournament. To qualify for this tournament, students must place in the top 6 when competing against schools from across Philadelphia and the surrounding regions.  

Declamation: 
Suhan Neema 2023- League Champion
Nandhini Parthasarathy 2022

Congressional Debate:
Sebastian Tucker 2021- League Champion
Soumil Zachariah 2021

Dramatic Interpretation: 
Brandon Tsai 2022
Anju Zhang 2021

Extemporaneous Speaking: 
Chirag Choudhary 2022

Lincoln Douglas Debate
Devin Jiang 2021
Luke Ittyachen 2020- League Champion

Oral Interpretation:
Erica Zhao 2021
Aarohi Nadkarni 2021

Original Oratory
Addison Liu 2021
Isha Bellur 2022

Policy Debate
Kevin Liao 2020
Colin McVety 2022
Ansh Abbaraju 2021
Nikhil Pisolkar 2021

Public Forum Debate
Darshak Gadagkar 2020
Evan Wang 2020

 
In addition, Unionville High School won the following League Sweepstakes awards for 2020: 

• Varsity Speech- 2nd place
• Varsity Debate- 1st place
• Varsity Congress- 1st place
• Overall Sweepstakes- 1st place

 

 

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The following students qualified to attend the National High School Speech League's Championship tournament. This is the largest tournament in the country and takes place over the week of June 15th- June 20th. To qualify for this tournament, students need to place in the top 2 of their division in the Valley Forge League, which spans from the Allentown area through the northern part of West Virginia. 

Congressional Debate:
*Sebastian Tucker   2021

Dramatic Interpretation:
*Anju Zhang  2021

Extemporaneous Speaking:
*Chirag Choudhary  2022
Adarsh Gadagkar 2020

Lincoln Douglas Debate: 
*Luke Ittyachen  2020
*Devin Jiang 2021

Persuasive Speaking:
*Addison Liu  2021

Policy Debate:
*Ansh Abbaraju  2021
*Aryan Abbaraju 2023
*Akash Patel  2023
*Nikhil Pisolkar  2021

Public Forum Debate
Darshak Gadagkar  2020
*Manav Gundecha  2021
*Daisy Qiu 2020
*Naman Razdan  2021
*Soumil Zachariah  2021
Evan Wang  2020 

*These students have chosen to compete at the virtual tournament taking place in June