Bellarmine College Preparatory’s debate team has achieved an extraordinary feat, closing out the 2024 National Speech and Debate Tournament. Two of the school’s teams were crowned co-champions of the policy division, marking a historic moment for Bellarmine and the debate community.
The first championship team, composed of Surya Krishnapillai and Rohan Lingam (Bellarmine KL), defeated Rock Hill’s Kaden Carr and Danush Gade in the semifinals. The second team, consisting of Shae McInnis and Andrew Huang (Bellarmine HM), bested Lawrence Free State’s Sophie Racy and Connor Brown to make it to the final round. This remarkable achievement marks the first time a school has closed out the NSDA Nationals since 2019 when Washburn Rural’s teams of Grace Kessler/Raina Peter and Jake Berry/Jimin Park both reached the finals. Prior to that, the feat had only been accomplished by Montgomery Bell Academy in 2005.
Reflecting on their success, Rohan Lingam, who will attend Stanford University in the fall, shared, “Being co-champs to me is a reflection of what I think is the spirit of Bellarmine debate. We’re a close-knit community of people who are not only debate partners but also the best of friends. We’ve competed in so many different styles of debate—from lay debating in front of parents in the Bay Area to going for dedev in our final circuit round in TOC elims. We’ve learned so much from both styles—the difference between good lay debating and good circuit debating is not as massive as one might think. In circuit, you still have to spin your arguments persuasively because you’re not arguing in front of a robot. In lay, you can’t just drop every argument because fluff doesn’t win debates.”
Surya Krishnapillai, who will attend UC Berkeley in the fall, expressed his excitement about the victory, stating, “Getting the opportunity to debate our best friends on the national finals stage really felt like a dream come true. To me, nationals represented the culmination of the past 4 years of debate because we had to argue for and against all kinds of affirmatives in front of both lay and circuit judges over the course of 15 rounds. I wouldn’t want my career to end any other way.”
Shae McInnis and Andrew Huang, who will both attend Georgetown University, were equally thrilled with their accomplishment, marking the end of a successful high school debate career.
The 2024 National Speech and Debate Tournament saw fierce competition from across the country, but Bellarmine’s teams emerged victorious. This victory not only highlights the individual and collective skill of Surya, Rohan, Shae, and Andrew but also underscores the strength of the Bellarmine debate program.