By Michelle Huang | Staff Writer

On Sept. 26, Irvington brought over forty-four debaters to James Logan High School for the first league tournament of the year, winning sixteen trophies after a day of competition. Irvington’s debaters competed across the novice, junior varsity, and varsity divisions.

Unlike invitationals, which are open to all, only schools in each of California’s four regional leagues may compete in league tournaments. Irvington competes in the Golden Gate Speech Association, which, contrary to its name, oversees both speech and debate.

The tournament offered only congressional and parliamentary debate, with Irvington competing exclusively in the latter. Teams debated topics ranging from the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty to the effects of political lobbying.

Irvington fielded eight out of 75 novice parliamentary debate teams. Six out of these eight teams won at least three of their four rounds. The team of juniors Aditya Gundimeda and Saahil Kurada went undefeated, with a 4-0 record.

“The novices’ performance was one of the best I’ve ever seen in a tournament, and you can expect to see a majority of them move up to JV and varsity,” novice captain Soham Ghosh said.

In junior varsity, five Irvington teams competed in a field of forty-three teams. Of these five teams, the team of Samiha Uddin and Jahnavi Maddhuri, both juniors, won three out of four rounds. In varsity, nine out of thirty-nine teams represented Irvington, and the sophomore team of William Yoo and Sabrina Liu achieved a 3-1 record.

Regardless of individual success, Maddhuri felt that all teams that competed gained important experience.

“All of our hard work has begun to pay off,” said Maddhuri. “Everyone walked away with something more valuable than a trophy.”