AHS Speech & Debate Celebrates Another Banner Year

As this year's AHS Speech & Debate Team results demonstrate, these students and their leaders are continuing to achieve an incredible amount of success. This year, 70 students competed in Speech and/or Debate, many of them are listed below.

There are two tournament tracks in Speech & Debate:

• Indiana High School Forensic Association (IHSFA) hosts a sectional competition that leads to state.
• The National Speech and Debate Association (NSDA) hosts district competitions, and the top two students in each event competes at the national competition in June.

State Champion

Junior Katherine Langford is the IHSFA Indiana State Debate Champion in Congress. Sixty students from around the state competed in her event over the course of two days, January 28 and 29. Congratulations, Katherine!

Speech Team Successes

• Captured 1st Place in sweepstakes points in seven out of the 10 meets in which they competed
• IHSFA Sectional Team Champions
• NSDA Hoosier Crossroads District Champions
• Placed 3rd at IHSFA State Finals in large school division

Debate Team Successes

• Competed in seven meets this year
• Placed 5th overall at IHSFA State finals

Individual Successes

• Seven students have qualified to compete in nine events at NSDA Nationals in Louisville, Kentucky in June: Savannah Lee and Ian Lynam in Duo, Daniel Fajana and Jared Spoor in Duo, Zainab Syed in Original Oratory, Connor Brownfield in International Extemporaneous, and Katherine Langford in Congress Debate
• 32 out of a possible 36 students qualified to compete at IHSFA Speech State Finals
• 10 students placed in top 6 at State: Danny Fajana and Jared Spoor in Duo Interpretation (2nd), Zainab Syed in Original Oratory (2nd), Connor Brownfield in International Extemporaneous (3rd), Katherine Langford in Impromptu Speaking (3rd), Hannah Wright in Prose Interpretation (4th), Ian Lynam in Humorous Interpretation (4th), Liam Hoffman in International Extemporaneous (4th), Faith Kipkulei in Informative Speaking (5th), Krishna Lathish in Original Oratory (5th), and Ian Lynam and Savannah Lee in Duo Interpretation (6th)
• 12 students competed at the IHSFA DEBATE State Finals
• Three students placed in Semifinals: Heechan Jung, Precious Olaniyan, and Grant Shirley

Mark your calendars.

Middle School Speech Camp, 'Speak Up', is planned for the first week of June. More info to come!