Speech and Debate has experienced an increase in success and membership this season.

Lincoln-Douglas debate captain senior Jeffrey Di Santo believes that the team has made a name for itself in the local speech and debate community.

“Debate started with four people and it grew to 40,” Di Santo said. “We are a force to be reckoned with in the area. I can only hope that the team can continue to win and grow.”

Di Santo and three other team members, junior Grace Erard, junior Nojan Hajiabassi, and senior Kshitij Kumar, have qualified for the Washington-Arlington Catholic Forensic League Varsity Metro Finals tournament in Lincoln-Douglas debate, an individual event focused on issues of values and philosophy. Sophomores Amar Singh, Julian Levy-Myers, and Alla Cartwright will compete in the junior varsity Metro Finals tournament.

In order to qualify for Metro Finals, they had to either place in one of WACFL’s monthly tournaments or earn a 3-1 record twice.

Placing in the varsty tournament is the prerequisite for competing in the National Catholic Forensic League Grand National Tournament.

Last year, seniors Reuben Levy-Myers, who is the public forum debate captain, and Andrew Kropp-Sullivan earned a bid to this national tournament in public forum debate, a partner event that addresses current events issues. They aspire to go to the tournament again this year by performing well at Metro Finals, which they qualified for a few months ago.

Juniors Anna Stormoen and Allyson Paiewonsky will also attend varsity Metro Finals for public forum. Sophomores Kiran Hampton,Henry Woelflein, and Sneha Kuchipudi have earned the right to compete in junior varsity Metro Finals .

Members of the team have consistently placed and earned top speaking points in both public forum debate and Lincoln-Douglas debate at the monthly WACFL tournaments.

Debate has also performed well at invitational tournaments. Junior Amelia Koby, sophomore Alla Cartwright, and sophomore Julian Levy-Myers swept junior varsity Lincoln-Douglas debate, junior Grace Erard earned fifth place in varsity Lincoln-Douglas debate, sophomore Sneha Kuchipudi and freshman Mallika Suri placed third in junior varsity public forum debate, and partners Levy-Myers and Kropp-Sullivan placed first in varsity public forum debate at the Broad Run Spartan Invitational at Broad Run High School Jan. 19.

As a result, the team earned the Public Forum Debate Cup, the Lincoln-Douglas Debate Cup, and the Spartan Invitational Debate Cup.

According to debate coach Cheryl Finley, who competed at the national tournament in policy debate when she was in high school, the team’s success at the Broad Run Spartan Invitational was her favorite part of the season thus far.

“The biggest highlight of the year was going to the invitational and winning big trophies,” Finley said. “It was exciting and we are now recognized by a lot of other schools as a really solid team that is not to be written off.”

Levy-Myers attributes the team’s achievements to increased leadership and collaboration.

“The team has grown in maturity and strength,” Levy-Myers said. “I’ve seen our levels of teamwork go up. There are seniors helping freshmen and freshmen helping freshmen, which is even better. The cooperation within the team is what makes our team one of the best in the region.”

The team hopes to continue its winning streak at the WACFL tournament at TC Williams High School Saturday Feb. 16 at and at the VHSL District tournament at South Lakes High School Saturday Feb. 23.

Di Santo, Erard, Levy-Myers, and Kropp-Sullivan will not compete at the WACFL tournament. Instead, they have opted to travel to Cambridge, Massachusetts to compete in the 39th Annual Harvard National Debate Tournament, which is attended by some of best debaters from across the country every year, Feb. 15-18.

Debate will also send students to the national qualifier tournament for the Virginia District of the National Forensics League at Madison County High School in Madison, Virginia April 12-13. Later this year, the debate team will attend a tournament in Pennsylvania accompanied by the speech team.

At the Pennsylvania tournament, speech competitors plan to build off the momentum they have gained throughout the season.

“This year has been incredible,” speech coach Rebecca Samba said. “We had a huge growth in the number of students on the team and because of that, and because of regular practices, we’ve seen some really great achievements. We had four students make it to the regional level and we had over ten students make it to Metro Finals in our other league.”

Samba has also been pleased that the team has performed well in a number of different speech events.

“We’ve gotten a little more diverse in terms of the categories this year,” Samba said. “We definitely have done really well in impromptu and oral interpretation. This year we’ve had a lot of students who have really stepped up in dramatic performance and in duo. We’ve been doing well across the board.”

According to speech captain senior Sydney Seed, the best part of membership on the team is not winning awards, rather, it is making friends.

“I think my most cherished memories are not from the medals I have won from successful competitions, but from the amazing relationships that have developed over long car rides and practices,” Seed said. “Everyone is so goofy and wonderful. Two years in a row, I had Districts on my birthday and people brought cupcakes. Last year, Scott Waters got all of my speech peers in the district to sing to me.”