September 11th Recap: Coppell & Greenhill Are First Champions of the Season; Flower Mound, Sage Hill, Alannah Debates, and Modern Brain Earn Bids

National Speech and Debate Season Opener

In the final round of National Speech and Debate Season Opener, Sage Hill Mighty Ducks debated on the proposition against Coppell Lightning on the opposition. On a 2-1 decision, Coppell won the round. Congratulations to Coppell’s Iniya Yasodha Nandakumar, Akul Parasuraman, Aayush Bhandari, and Saffi Shah for winning the tournament. Congratulations to Sage Hill’s Zack Hubbard, Charlie Lee, Maya Kim Parlow, and Elizabeth Lu for receiving the other bids! Congratulations to the semifinalist bid winners as well: Alannah Debates’ Connor Yu, Kaden Wong, Chloe Che, Armaan Singh & Vihaan Singh and ModernBrain’s Jiarui Jackie Li & Eliana Joo & Shawn Su

The top 10 speakers were as follows:

1. Elizabeth Park – Velásquez SYPSD

2. Daniel Song – SKRB Independent KSBR

3. Saffi Shah – Coppell Lightning

4. Emily Deng – Velásquez SYPSD

5. Karina Lam – VDA - Vancouver JXLW

6. Meghna Singh – Palo Alto ZGCSX

7. Elizabeth Lu – Sage Hill Mighty Ducks

8. Sophia Jia – VDA - Vancouver JXLW

9. Kyle Greenberg – Palo Alto ZGCSX

10. Ashlyn Motley – Polytechnic CGTMD

Full results can be found here.

Grapevine Classic

In the final round of Grapevine Classic, Greenhill Diamond debated on the proposition against Flower Mound Solaris on the opposition. On a 2-1 decision, Greenhill won the round. Congratulations to Greenhill’s Carys Diamond, Tim Csallner, Arhaan Iyer, Marleigh Massoud, and Cindy Chou for winning the tournament. Congratulations to Flower Mound’s Mihika Kandula, Gagana Latchupatula, Kaviya Vinothkumar, and Sahana Vijaysarathy for receiving the other bids!

The top 10 speakers were as follows:

1. Tim Csallner – Greenhill Diamond

2. Amber Lin – Southlake Carroll Saffron

3. Sidharta De – Coppell Tempest

4. Marleigh Massoud – Greenhill Diamond

5. Julianne Myhre – Hockaday Green

6. Kaviya Vinothkumar – Flower Mound Solaris

7. Arhaan Iyer – Greenhill Diamond

8. Lily Vollbrecht – Hockaday Green

9. Arnav Tomer – Southlake Carroll Salt

10. Sophia Salem – Hockaday White

Full results can be found here.

WOWI Shoutouts

National Speech & Debate Season Opener

1. Saffi Shah (‘26) - 3rd Speaker, Champ

2. Akul Parasuraman (‘26) - Champ

3. Aayush Bhandari (‘26) - Champ

4. Iniya Nandakumar (‘24) - Champ

5. Rithika Kuppa (‘26) - Quarters

6. Ishan Jinndal (‘26) - Quarters

Grapevine

1. Mihika Kandula (‘24) - Finalist

2. Yasha Godha (‘24 & ‘25) - Semis

3. Anushka Velala - (‘25) - Semis

4. Nethra Tummalapall (‘24) - Semis

5. Bhargav H Narayanan (‘24) - Semis

6.  Jayanth Yamunan (‘23) - Semis

7. Sidharta De (‘23) - Semis, 3rd Speaker

8. Arjun Vasan (‘25 & ‘26) - Quarters

9. Arnav Tomer (‘25 & ‘26) - Quarters, 9th Speaker

10. Parshva Jain (‘25 & ‘26) - Quarters

11. Alok Desai (‘25 & ‘26) - Quarters

12. Madhav Mehta (‘25 & ‘26) - Quarters

13. Aarav Singh (‘24) - Quarters

14. Siddharth Shah (‘25) - Quarters