Ridge Forensics Team Puts on a Show at Harvard and District Tournament

For a school that has won the state championship in forensics every year for the past eight years, Ridge is showing no signs of letting up.

Competing at The Harvard National High School Invitational Forensics Tournament at Harvard University on Feb. 12-15 and the NJFL Tournament in Phillipsburg this past weekend, Ridge continued the trend of representing the school well on the state and national levels.

Four competitors from Ridge made it to the final round at Harvard in their respective events. Sophomore Sam Schraer and Claire Yao cleared the preliminary and semi-final rounds in Student Congress to earn a seat on the Super Congress for the final. The Super Congress was made up of 24 students who advanced from the initial pool of 372, representing schools from all across the country.

The news got even better for the Student Congress team this past weekend at the NJFL tournament when Ridge forensics team president Alex Smyk, and Schraer qualified for nationals at the National Forensics League National Tournament based on their performances. Smyk, a senior, qualified for the third time to the Tournament of Champions for Student Congress and was a finalist at the national tournament last year.

In addition to the two Congressional debaters, Ridge qualified two more forensics team members for the final round of an event at Harvard, often the largest forensics tournament in the country. Peter Vogel and senior Rohan Pai finished fourth and sixth respectively for Extemporaneous Speaking out of the 202-person pool.

"We were competing against pretty much the best competition from all around the country," Vogel said. "Specifically in my event we did very well. We advanced six people out of the preliminary rounds."

Pai added, "The interesting thing is, in the event that Peter and I both do, extemporaneous speaking, we have not broken a finalist [in a national tournament] since Sept. 2006. So in many respects it was surprise to get Peter and myself, or even just one of us, in the finals."

Ridge continued their success in extemp events at the NJFL tournament, finishing 1-2-3 with senior Jaina Shah taking first, Pai winning second and senior Jay Bishen finishing third.

Back at Harvard, Vogel's twin sister Susanna made sure the family name was easily recognized on the national forensics circuit, leading Ridge's Lincoln-Douglas Debate squad with an eventual finish as a quarterfinalist.

Vogel went 5-1 in the preliminary rounds and was the No. 25 seed going into elimination rounds. She had the difficult task of facing the tournament's top speaker, Strake Jesuit College Prep's Drew McCormick in the first round, but was able to advance. Vogel then beat a competitor from debate powerhouse Walt Whitman High School and the No. 9 seed from Needham before bowing out to the eventual runner-up from Harvard-Westlake School in the quarterfinals.

Vogel earned her fourth bid to the Tournament of Champions at Harvard, needing only two to qualify. According to her brother, Vogel was the first female Lincoln-Douglas debater to qualify for nationals in the country this year, and the seventh qualifier overall.

Lincoln-Douglas debate is one of the most popular forensics activities, and therefore one of the most competitive, but Ridge has maintained a national presence in the event. Varun Jayaraman advanced to elimination rounds and was the No. 24 ranked speaker in LD at Harvard. Allison Douglas made it to the round of 32 at Harvard, and Kevin Shia was the No. 76 ranked speaker at Harvard, plus the first place winner in LD at the NJFL tournament. Five of the six finalist in LD at the NJFL were Ridge debaters.

Proving that the team is broadly competitive, Ridge had three teams advance to elimination rounds in Public Forum debate at Harvard (Tejus Pradeep and his debate partner Brian Moore went 5-1 in the preliminary rounds and Pradeep was ranked as a top 50 speaker.) Two speakers, Zoe Petitt and Jerry Christodoulatos, advanced to the round of 16 in Dramatic Interpretation. Senior Steve Bennett won first place at the NJFL tournament in Dramatic Interpretation. And Ridge had finalist in duo, original oratory, and impromptu speaking at the tournament this past weekend, along with the finalists in the other events already mentioned.

Ridge will have the opportunity to defend their state title at the NJFL state championships, held this year at Ridge, on March 5-6.

"I think Ridge as a whole is going to continue the trend we have had in the past over the last eight years," Pai said. "I hope we are going to win it."