Ivy Bridge Academy Debaters Perform Well in National Tournament at Georgetown University

Ivy Bridge Academy (IBA) debate students traveled to Georgetown University over the weekend of Oct. 12-13 for a national debate tournament. IBA had seven teams competing in the middle school division, with the team of Rikhil Ranjit and Hanming Sun qualifying for the final rounds. Students debated the topic of European trade with China, giving them vital insight and knowledge about current events. The students also got a chance to tour the prestigious university, and it was an overall invaluable experience for them.

Debaters excelled in the individual speaker awards with Prakhar Gupta finishing in 5th place, Hanming Sun in 7th and Rikhil Ranjit in 9th place. The Novice team of Adya Bhatta and Stella Chen were Champions. Individiual speaker awards at the Novice level were Adya Bhatta in 3rd, Stella Chen in 5th, Nina Thakur in 7th and Suraj Singareddy in 9th place.

IBA had two Junior Varsity teams, Albert Cho and Elly Kang who were Semifinalists and Sonal Churiwal and Melissa Liu finishing as Octafinalists.

The Varsity team of Tracy Xu and Mayukh Keelar were Octafinalists in the tournament.

Middle School Teams

Ethan Nam and Gene Yoon — Top 40
Krishna Anand and Karthik Jayaram — Double-octafinalist
Benjamin Moon and Prakhar Gupta — Octafinalist
Neha Mahesh and Shristi Roy — Octafinalist

Irene Tang and Ashley Wang — Octafinalist
Aalif Biswas and Anant Gautam — Quarterfinalist
Rikhil Ranjit and Hanming Sun — Finalist

5th speaker — Prakhar Gupta
7th speaker — Hanming Sun
9th speaker — Rikhil Ranjit

Novice

Akshaya Poonepalle and Jason Eappen — Octafinalist
Yugesh Muralidhar and Nina Thakur — Semifinalist
Adya Bhatta and Stella Chen — Champions

3rd speaker — Adya Bhatta
5th speaker — Stella Chen
7th speaker — Nina Thakur
9th speaker — Suraj Singareddy

Junior Varsity
Sonal Churiwal and Melissa Liu — Octafinalist
Albert Cho and Elly Kang — Semifinalist

Varsity
Tracy Xu and Mayukh Keelar — Octafinalist

IBA is so proud of all of our students and the hard work put forth to compete at a national level. Each competition gives the debaters a chance to continue to learn, improve, work together and demonstrate their accomplishments in tournaments.

Source: Patch.com