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Mira Loma Speech and Debate Wins Big at MLK

By Chirag Kawediya

Mira Loma Speech and Debate recently won in many categories at the James Logan MLK Invitational on January 18th.

While most students stay home and relax during Martin Luther King Jr’s memorial weekend, Mira Loma’s Speech and Debate team was hard at work competing at an invitational tournament. The invitational (referred to as “invite” in Speech and Debate lingo) was hosted at James Logan High School in Union City, California. 

Speech participants competed in various events, giving impromptu speeches, prepared original speeches, or their own interpretations of other literature or media in speech form. The events happen in “rounds,” during which competitors are separated into groups of 6 and a judge ranks the competitors in the group after hearing each of their speeches. Slowly, people are eliminated and there are fewer and fewer rooms. 

4 students made it to the quarterfinal round (top 36) in their events, and Rhagava Kodavatikanti, a freshman, made it to the semifinal (top 12) round in a type of speech called Humorous Interpretation (HI)!! 

Debaters also accomplished quite a bit at the invitational. Mira Loma competed in all 5 types of debate, and our team advanced significantly in the bracket for 3 of them. Sarabaesh Srikumar and Alex Shan, teammates in a 2v2 debate format called Public Forum, placed in the top 8 teams. Because of their achievement, they were granted an invitation to the Public Forum Tournament of Champions – an exclusive unofficial national tournament hosted by the University of Kentucky.

This success has kept the MLSD team excited for upcoming tournaments. In February, they will be competing at Stanford University’s invitational.

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