The upper school speech and debate team hosted its first virtual tournament and did a tremendous job! Thirty-one schools from three states took part in the week long tournament that culminated Saturday, Feb. 20. Thank you to everyone who helped judge the competitions, and a big shout out to the upper school speech and debate team, and coaches Justin Smith and Bryson Kentworthy for managing the tournament.  

Previously, the squad attended the local Staley/Winnetonka virtual invitational and the Seven Lakes/CY Park National Individual Events Tournament of Champions (NIETOC) qualifying tournaments the week of Feb. 8, bringing home multiple sweepstake honors and NIETOC bids. Freshman Josie Miller received her second NIETOC bid, becoming the first PHS freshman in 14 years to qualify for a national championship!

Staley/Winnetonka Varsity:

• Second Place - Overall Sweepstakes
• Second Place - Debate Sweepstakes 
• Second Place - Individual Events Sweepstakes 

Tournament Champions
Tristan Wells - Lincoln Douglas Debate
Rita Abou Jawde - Informative Speaking

Tournament Runner-Ups
Salil Chandramohan and Armaan Yarlagadda - Varsity Policy Debate
Elan Jiang and Jimmy O'Connell - JV Policy Debate
Eli Toney - United States Extemporaneous Speaking
Tristan Wells - International Extemporaneous Speaking

Finalists
Lincoln Douglas Debate
Ellie Lin - JV fourth place 

Public Forum Debate
Anoushka Makkad and Darwin Torrance - Varsity third place
Maya Burton and Dermot O'Connor - Varsity fourth place

Congress
Darwin Torrance - third place
Salil Chandramohan
Eli Toney
Piper Toney
Mary Abou Jawde

United States Extemporaneous Speaking 
Armaan Yarlagadda - fourth place
Walter Brookby - sixth place

Informative Speaking
Salil Chandramohan - third place

International Extemporaneous Speaking
Darwin Torrance - third place

Semifinalist
Congress: Naina Singh and Armaan Yarlagadda
Dramatic Interpretation - Sophia Ramos
United States Extemporaneous Speaking - Henry Ruland
Informative Speaking - Elan Jiang, Neha Kumar, Anoushka Makkad
International Extemporaneous Speaking - Dermot O'Connor
Oratory - Josie Miller

At Seven Lakes/Cy Park NIETOC qualifier: 

Seven Lakes Tournament Champion
Erin William - Dramatic Interpretation

Seven Lakes Tournament Runner-Up
Louisa Gear and Addie Schmidt - Duo 

Seven Lakes Finalist
United States Extemporaneous Speaking
Jiya Singh - eighth place (NIETOC Bid)

Seven Lakes Semifinalist
Oratory: Josie Miller (NIETOC bid) 

Cy Park Semifinalists
Extemporaneous Speaking - Jiya Singh
Oratory - Josie Miller