By Georgia Levine

Potomac Debate’s 2024-25 debate season opened with a bang, with debaters preparing to be future presidents by researching and debating surveillance along the southern border. With Potomac’s summer camp concluding only a month earlier, it is no surprise that well-prepared students came away from early tournaments decorated with bids to the Tournament of Champions and a myriad of other awards! In speech and debate, from middle school to high school, Potomac’s students came away from September both enjoying their successes and already looking forward to the next topic.

University of Kentucky Season Opener

From the very first weekend of the month, Potomac showed its debate chops. As students competed in the UK Season Opener’s hybrid debate format (featuring both in-person and online divisions), Potomac students went farther than most. After traveling from Maryland to Kentucky, Richard Montgomery’s Ryan Xie and Elizabeth Chung fought through multiple elimination rounds to quarterfinals, where they earned a gold bid to the Tournament of Champions (TOC)! Online, Winston Churchill’s Ethan Mao and Paul Wang not only won a silver bid to TOC, they also went 6 and 0 in pre-elimination rounds, giving them a first place seed and earning them an overall record of 9 and 1!

In middle school, Potomac boasted three out of eight quarterfinalist teams, including Veer Parmar and Anthony Lee, who were both the top seed in pre-elimination rounds and division finalists! Further, Danush Vattipulusu, Anthony Lee, and Aniruddh Dayananda gained accolades as the 2nd, 7th, and 10th place speakers, respectively.

USA Forensics Olympiad Fall Classic

In the second weekend, Potomac students continued to demonstrate their public speaking skills, with students in the middle school open division securing all top ten speaker places! Building on that feat, Potomac teams also occupied all four semi-finalist spots, with Potomac’s Daven Kella and Anay Sahu coming away with first place and Rishi Golla and Rishaan Kumar in second! In the high school division, Potomac continued a month of success with Claire Lee and Allison Lee reaching semifinals, as well as Richard Montgomery’s Katherine Xue and Grace Li winning first, coming away with a 6 and 1 overall record! In speaker awards, high schoolers came away with 5th, 6th, and 9th to fill out a great weekend.

Mid America Cup, Marist, and Jack Howe

To finish off an incredible month, Potomac sent debaters to three tournaments across the country. As students competed online, in California, and in Iowa, they once again demonstrated their strength as competitors, reaching elimination rounds in every tournament. At the Mid America Cup, Winston Churchill’s Alisha Durbhakula and Thomas Wu finished the tournament in double octafinals, with a pre-elimination seed above ¾ of their opponents. At the Marist Ivy Street Invitational, Potomac’s middle school teams reached the highest levels, with Julianna Shi and Kristine Qiao claiming the first place pre-elimination seed as well as a semifinal spot (the tournament ended at semifinals, with no finalists being named). A second semifinal spot was earned by Adelina Elliott and Nandini Bhatt. Debaters also claimed 2nd, 4th, and 8th place speaking spots, affirming Potomac as a dominant name over the weekend! In the high school division, River Hill’s Roselyn Bi and Tiffany Tang and Potomac’s Zayd Patel and Preston Lieu reached runoffs.

At Jack Howe, Potomac’s Jonah Koo and Gabriel Salganick won second place in the high school novice division, beating out nearly 50 competitors! Further, Gabriel Salganic won 7th place speaker, closing out Potomac’s month of success!

In all, September was an overwhelmingly positive start to Potomac Debate’s 2024-2025 season. Students showed once again that not only are they well prepared and well spoken, but that they are more than capable of translating everything their practice into results! As we head into October, students are bound to continue using the knowledge and skills that they have developed to turn class into competition and competition into wins.