By Kirsten Craft

This November our students shifted their focus from border surveillance to military support of Taiwan. With a new topic and a busy tournament semester, they quickly got to work. 

From their research, they learned there are many reasons the US should and should not decrease military support for Taiwan, but most close debates come down to deterrence vs. escalation. With the election, they also learned that even arguments that seem unrelated to politics can change under a new administration. 

Their early learnings proved valuable on the tournament circuit. In November alone, Potomac students amassed 15 speaker awards, five bids to the Tournament of Champions, and won three major tournaments. Most national tournaments in November took place online. But some teams traveled the distance this month to compete – going as far as Illinois and Flordia to put their debate skills to the test in person. 

Check out our full national results below: 

Florida Blue Key

Public Forum Open
Richard Montgomery Lin & Wang – Doubles, Silver bid
Leon Wang – 4th Speaker
Sherry Lin – 7th Speaker

Groves Falcon Invitational 

Middle School Open
Potomac Golla & Kumar – Champions
Potomac Doshi & Islam – Semis
Rishaan Kumar – 6th Speaker
Anaya Doshi – 7th Speaker 
Ayman Islam – 10th Speaker

John Lewis SVUDL Invitational

Public Forum Novice
Potomac Jing & Patel – Champions
Potomac Liu & Shah – Octos
Potomac Golla & Kumar – Octos

Public Forum Open
Poolesville Dave & Hou – Triple Octos
Potomac Datta & Godlaveti – Triple Octos

Peach State Classic

Public Forum Open
Wootton Tian & Tang – Co-Champions, Gold Bid
Aaron Tian – 1st Speaker
Isabel Tang – 10th Speaker

Varsity LD
Ryan Xie – Quarters

UCLA Invitational

Public Forum Varsity
Potomac Cho & Sohagiya – Semis
Mentong Xiang – 2nd Speaker
Yusuf Gabr – 7th Speaker

Public Forum Novice
Potomac Jing & Patel – Champions
Potomac Ai & Bhatt – Finals
Potomac Wang & Yu – Semis
Potomac Kella & Koo – Semis
Potomac Li & Nam – Octas
Potomac Liu & Chen – Octas
Rainger Yu – 2nd Speaker
Aanshi Patel – 5th Speaker
Jonah Koo – 7th Speaker
Nandini Bhatt – 8th Speaker
Kayla Hill – 9th Speaker

Varsity Speech
Shreya Dinesh – 2nd Place, Impromptu
Shreya Dinesh – 3rd Place, Extemp

U Michigan

Public Forum Varsity
Poolesville Dave & Hou – Quarters

Apple Valley

Public Forum Varsity
Wootton Tian & Tang – Doubles, Silver Bid

Glenbrooks

Public Forum Varsity
Rochard Montgomery Lin & Wang – Quarters, Gold bid
Wootton Tian & Tang – Octos, Gold bid
Aaron Tian – 10th Speaker

In addition to a jam-packed month on the national tournament circuit, our students competed at one of our largest intramural tournaments to date! At the November Intramural, students had the opportunity to compete in speech or public forum. It was a great opportunity for all students – even those competing for the first time! 

2024 PDA November Intramural

ES Speech:
Elle Z – 1st Place
Eric Z – 2nd Place 
Anjana P – 3rd Place

MS & HS Speech: 
Sophie L – 1st Place
Benjamin P – 2nd Place
Nikhil N – 3rd Place 
Soha N – 4th Place

ES Novice Rookie:
Potomac Ganesan & Rao – Champions
Potomac Bai & Joshi – Finals
Potomac Chiu & Kim – Semis
Potomac Bhanushali & Tang – Semis
Anvi Joshi – 1st Speaker
JJ Bai – 2nd Speaker
Kalden Wangyal – 3rd Speaker

ES & MS Open Rookie:
Potomac Capaldi & Ho – Champions
Potomac Doshi & Padgett – Finals
Potomac Natow & Sankaranarayanan – Semis
Potomac Abaya & Tseng – Semis
Heer Doshi – 1st Speaker
Ariha Shah – 2nd Speaker
Cecilia Padgett – 3rd Speaker
Sruti Viswanatha – 4th Speaker
Jacob Abaya – 5th Speaker

MS Novice:
Potomac Gupta & Lekshmi – Champions
Potomac Yadav & Mohanty – Finals
Potomac Gaiki & Vighe – Semis
Potomac Yao & Yao – Semis
Soma Gupta – 1st Speaker
Arjun Singh – 2nd Speaker
Ansh Garg – 3rd Speaker
Priyanjana Bose – 4th Speaker
Aly Kakajanov – 5th Speaker

MS & HS Junior Varsity:
Potomac Gupta & Liu – Champions
Potomac Bose & Peddibhotla – Finals
Potomac Dutta & Mahajan – Semis
Potomac Sharma & Massay – Semis
Amanda Yang – 1st Speaker
Ryan Liu – 2nd Speaker
Eddy Zou – 3rd Speaker
Devika Gollapa – 4th Speaker
Jayden Liu – 5th Speaker

MS & HS Open:
Potomac Nandakumar & Venkatesan – Champions
Potomac Liu & Zhu – Finals
Potomac Li & Nam – Semis
Potomac Padiyar & Veerla – Semis
Mithra Venkatesan – 1st Speaker
Ananya Nandakumar – 2nd Speaker
Andy Zhu – 3rd Speaker
Andrew Nam – 4th Speaker
Annie Liao – 5th Speaker

HS Novice:
Potomac Kabra & Yang – Champions
Potomac Kogan & Paruchuri – Finals
Joshua Jathanna – 1st Speaker
Polina Kogan – 2nd Speaker
Eshika Paruchuri – 3rd Speaker