By Kirthana Iyer
Courier Staff Reporter
At the 2016 state championships for Speech and Debate, our school took around 40 competitors and left with 2 state championships, and a sweepstakes trophy for sixth place. Schools from all over the country know about our nationally ranked Speech and Debate team, but very few in our school know the power of room 408.
This year, the State Championship tournament was held in Mission College, Santa Clara. While walking through the halls, it was amazing to see the power of James Logan Forensics. As a competitor myself, walking into rounds and hearing people murmur my name because I was a Logan student felt weird. People who I had never met were talking about “those two Indian girls with the accents”, “the Memphis duo is so good”, or the greatest one “Oh no, Amish Project is in my round” and it shocked me about how outside 1800 H Street, the legacy of James Logan forensics lives on. Yet, in our own halls, many have forgotten it.
Here’s a list of those who represented your school at the 2016 State Championships:
Dramatic Interpretation:
- Chitra Jagannathan – 1st place, 2016 CHSSA State Champion (also representing James Logan at Nationals)
- Vaffie Barkolleh – 5th place (also representing James Logan at Nationals)
- Sukhmanpreet Kaur – 17th place
Duo Interpretation:
- Tyra Johnson & Edgar Partida – 1st place, 2016 CHSSA State Champions (Representing James Logan at Nationals)
- Johne’ Clayton & Jordan Jones – 8th place
- Akram Nour & Sammay Sharifi – 13th place
International Extemporaneous Speaking:
- Chance Boreczky – 2nd place (Representing James Logan at Nationals)
Original Advocacy:
- Kunal Sharma – 16th place
Original Oratory:
- Pranav Meda – 10th place (Representing James Logan at Nationals)
Expository Speaking:
- Priyanka Vatturi – 8th place
- Jessica Lee – 14th place
Oral Interpretation:
- Amulya Donthi – 4th place
- Kirthana Iyer – 15th place
Public Forum:
- Kunal Sharma & Gagandeep Gill – Octo Finalists (Representing James Logan at Nationals)
Overall Sweepstakes:
- James Logan High School- 6th place
Now, our school’s next tournament will be Catholic Nationals, then the 2016 National Tournament itself. We are taking more than 20 competitors to the Catholic National Tournament.
While some of the competitors didn’t break at State, they will be representing us once again at the National Tournament such as Jaden Gray in Original Oratory, RJ Augustin in Thematic Interpretation or POI, Mirwais Omarkhil in Lincoln Douglas Debate, and Antonio Flores & Taylor Turner in Duo Interpretation.
Good luck to our James Logan Forensics competitors for the rest of this year and next year! Also be sure to donate to the Forensics team on their site, and if you are interested in joining our nationally-ranked team, ask someone on the team about it or come to room 408!
