RESULTS: National Middle School Tournament @ Overland Park, KS

The Brooks Academy took 27 students to compete at the 2014 National Middle School Tournament, which was held WED 06/18 – FRI 06/20, and was hosted by Overland Park, KS. Exactly 100 schools from around the country entered in the competition, with 750 students competing in over 1200 different entries. After three grueling days of competition, The Brooks Academy’s students had collectively competed in over 70 rounds of elimination competition, won the national title in three different events, and as a team was recognized with the Overall School of Excellence Award, given to the Top 3 best performing schools in both Speech and Debate events. This is the second year in a row our staff’s program has been fortunate enough to earn the Overall School of Excellence Award, and we are already looking forward to next year’s 2015 National Tournament in Dallas and the chance to once again defend our title.

A special thanks to all of our students, coaches, and parents who work extremely hard to support our team. Our program's ability to make speech and debate available to as many students as possible and all of the success we continue to enjoy is a direct result of all of the love and support we are so fortunate to receive year in and year out. Thanks everyone.

---

Highlights from the tournament included…

-- Our program set several new team records, including clearing 9 entries to the Final Round: Dec, DI, Duo, Extemp (4), Imp, and PF.

-- The Brooks Academy brought 5 Extempers, who collectively finished prelim rounds with scores of only 1 or 2. After Quarter-Finals, all 5 of our Extempers also cleared to Semi-Finals, and 4 made it to the Final Round: Ankush Swarnakar, Arian Raje, Devesh Kodnani, and Ishan Lakhani. Arian Raje would go on to win 1st Place, earning our team’s first back-to-back national title in an event. Last year, Anshul Shah also won Extemp Speaking, which was our team’s first national title.

-- The majority of our debaters showed off their versatility and also cleared in a speech or second debate event: Lavanya Singh (DI & LD), Devesh Kodnani (Extemp & PF), Ankush Swarnakar (Extemp & PF), Ishika Chawla (Congress & PF), Robert Chen (DI & PF), Roanak Baviskar (Extemp & PF), Praveen Nair (Congress & PF), and Aman Agarwal (Congress & Duo).

-- Speaking of our debate squad: all six of our Public Forum teams cleared to elimination rounds, and as a group, went 26-4 in preliminary rounds, losing only four rounds.

-- Suki Singh, our only student entered in four speech events, cleared to elimination rounds in all four events.

-- Arian Raje cleared to elims in all three of his events (DEC, EXTEMP, & IMP), made the Final Round in all three, and finished as the 1st Place National Champion in two events: Extemporaneous & Impromptu Speaking. He placed 3rd in Declamation. Arian Raje becomes our program’s first student to make the Final Round in three events, our first National Champion in two events, and our first 1st Place Champion at both the California State and National Tournament levels for his efforts in Extemp Speaking.

The following is a list of all of our students who qualified to the elimination rounds of competition and how they placed…

DECLAMATION:
Arian Raje (3rd Place)
Eva Prakash (Qtrs)
Julia Park (Qtr)

DRAMATIC INTERP:
Lavanya Singh (5th Place)
Robert Chen (Qtrs)
Rohan Kota (Qtrs)
Suki Singh (Qtrs)

DUO INTERP:
Aman Agarwal & Ayush Agarwal (2nd Place)
James Dang & Suki Singh (Semis)
Durga Badrinarayanan & Suki Singh (Qtrs)

EXTEMP SPEAKING:
Arian Raje (1st Place)
Devesh Kodnani (3rd Place)
Ankush Swarnakar (4th Place)
Ishan Lakhani (5th Place)
Roanak Baviskar (Semis)

HUMOROUS INTERP:
Ishan Lakhani (Semis)
Rohan Srinivasan (Semis)

IMPROMPTU SPEAKING:
Arian Raje (1st Place)
Ishan Lakhani (Qtrs)

ORIGINAL ORATORY:
Eva Prakash (Semis)

POETRY:
Rohan Srinivasan (Semis)

PROSE:
Rohan Kota (Semis)
Julia Park (Qtrs)
Suki Singh (Qtrs)

CONGRESSIONAL DEBATE:
Aman Agarwal (Semis)
Ishika Chawla (Semis)
Praveen Nair (Semis)

LINCOLN-DOUGLAS DEBATE:
Lavanya Singh (Qtrs)
Rishi Bala (Doubles)

PUBLIC FORUM DEBATE:
Devesh Kodnani & Ankush Swarnakar (1st Place)
Avi Patel & Abhishek Shah (Semis)
Ishika Chawla & Robert Chen (Qtrs)
Roanak Baviskar & Praveen Nair (Octos)
Surya Pugal & Sahith Tummala (Octos)
Rohit Ghoshal & Aarushi Sahejpal (Doubles)