From Thurs 2/27 to Saturday 3/1, thirty-nine AA students participated in the 2025 State Speech & Debate Championship. We had 34 entries total competing across ten different types of events. Competition began Thursday evening for debate students with two preliminary online rounds, with all remaining rounds continuing at La Cueva High School on Thursday and Friday. By the end, we were named an NM Overall School of Excellence in both Speech & Debate and took home 6 Championship titles, with 23 State Finalists!
Quick Stats
- 39 participating students from AA
- 34 entries (15 in Speech; 19 in Debate) — the 2nd largest entry of any school!
- 4 total state championship titles
- 2 event close-outs
- 23 State Elimination Round Finalists
- 7 State Champions overall
- AA named an Overall School of Excellence in both Speech and Debate!
State Champions
- Elizabeth Hiller — 2025 State Champion x2 in International Extemp and Varsity Public Forum Debate
- Sowmya Sankaran — State Champion in Varsity Lincoln Douglas Debate
- Akilan Sankaran, Jaycee Sanchez, Anagha Devarakonda and Elizabeth Hiller — Co-State Champions in Varsity Public Forum Debate (1st place close-out!)
- Lillie Grace Rosen and Athena Hanna — Co-State Champions in Novice Lincoln Douglas Debate (1st place close-out!)
Participating Students
Class of 2025: Sara Chehy, Vince Walters, Ayla Zomermaand, Nate Boone, Meryem Anderoglu, Elizabeth Hiller, Akilan Sankaran, Darin Eberhardt, Abbott Carothers
Class of 2026: Aarush Tutiki, Jaycee Sanchez, Anagha Devarakonda, Ethan Xia, Marcelo Tohen, Harrison Schiek, William Landahl, Rosa Duvall, Videet Modhia
Class of 2027: Audrey Finkelstein, OJ Ukpedinjagba, Sowmya Sankaran, Eesha Gunukula, Joseph Rounds, Arjun Grandhe, Milas Atencio-Tognoni, JR Zhao, Maia Griffith
Class of 2028: Kaya Mitchell, Avett Deacon, Emma Tomasson, Zoya Jehanzeb, Liam McKee, Sohum Kopalle, Leo Xia
Class of 2029: Irene Arce-Cortazar, Brooklyn Zapata, Lillie Grace Rosen, Athena Hanna, Laasya Tutiki
Research Topics
In DEBATE, students prepared for the following resolutions:
- Lincoln Douglas Debate — Resolved: The United States ought to become party to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and/or the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.
- Public Forum Debate — Resolved The United States should accede to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.
- Policy Debate — Resolved: The United States federal government should significantly strengthen its protection of domestic intellectual property rights in copyrights, patents, and/or trademarks.
Through their efforts, our students extensively researched topics ranging from Indigenous intellectual property rights, feminist labor theory, UN peacekeeping efforts in Sudan, and geopolitical and environmental issues in the South China Sea.
In SPEECH, we presented pieces on:
- mestiza identity
- the experiences of women in debate
- social comparison and toxic achievement culture
- the stigmatization of schizophrenia
- the themes of death and family grief in an interpretive re-telling of Beetlejuice
- a history of the Olympics
- ...and many more!
Students in Extemporaneous Speaking also gave speeches with limited prep time on questions such as:
- Should Congress pass a law mandating nation-wide ranked-choice voting?
- Should the U.S. implement a nationwide paid parental leave policy?
- Is diplomacy the best strategy to counter North Korea's nuclear ambitions?
- Should national parks limit visitor numbers to prevent environmental damage?
Speech Results
International Extemp:
- 1st place (State Champ!)- Elizabeth Hiller '25
- 2nd place- Ayla Zomermaand '25
- 3rd place- Kaya Mitchell '28
- SWEEP of our entries in Finals!
US Extemp:
- 2nd place- Abbott Carothers '25
- 3rd place- Zoya Jehanzeb '28
- Semifinalist and Top Novice- Avett Deacon '28
Informative Speaking:
- 4th place- Nate Boone '25
Original Oratory:
- 3rd place- Sara Chehy '25
- 4th place- Meryem Anderoglu '25
- 5th place- Ayla Zomermaand '25
- 6th place- Vincent Walters '25
- 100% of our Oratory entries broke to both semifinals and finals — in fact, we made up more than half of all Finals competitors!
Duo Interp:
- 4th place- Vincent Walters '25 and Sara Chehy '25
Debate Results
Policy:
- BOTH of our upper-division varsity teams were only ONE round shy of breaking to Finals!
Novice Lincoln Douglas:
- CLOSE OUT NLD State Champions- Lillie-Grace Rosen '29 and Athena Hanna '29!
- Quarterfinalist- Videet Modhia '26
- We made up HALF of all Quarterfinalists — 3 of the 6 breaking entries represented AA!
Varsity Lincoln Douglas:
- 1st place (State Champ!)- Sowmya Sankaran '27
- Quarterfinalist- Eesha Gunukula '27
- Quarterfinalist- Meryem Anderoglu '25
Novice Public Forum:
- Semifinalists: Milas Atencio-Tognoni '27 + JR Zhao '27
- Quarterfinalists: Joseph Rounds '27 + Arjun Grandhe '27
Varsity Public Forum:
- CLOSE OUT VPF State Champions- Akilan Sankaran '25 + Elizabeth Hiller '25; Anagha Devarakonda '26 + Jaycee Sanchez '26
- Semifinalists: Ayla Zomermaand '25 + Vincent Walters '25
- Back-to-back Top Speaker Award in PF- Jaycee Sanchez '26!
Special Accolades & Historic Success
Jaycee '26 was named the 1st place Top Speaker in Public Forum for the SECOND year in a row!
William '26 and Rosa '26 were both awarded the Lockhart-Henry Presiding Officer Award in Congressional Debate!
AA PF won the State Championship for the FIFTH time since 2021, following up from last year's 1st-place close-out.
AA teams comprised THREE of the 4 advancing teams out of prelims — including Speech captains Vincent '25 and Ayla '25 in their second time ever competing in the event!
Elizabeth '25, Jaycee '26, and Anagha '26 are now back-to-back reigning State Champions in the event.
AA LD has now won back-to-back State Championships (2024 and 2025), following up from last year's 1st place close-out.
THREE out of our 4 total varsity entries (Meryem '25, Eesha '27, and Sowmya '27) advanced to elimination rounds!
Novices Lillie '29 and Athena '29 also achieved a historic 1st place close-out in Novice LD after advancing through quarterfinals and winning their respective semifinal rounds!
Elizabeth '25, Ayla '25, and Kaya '28 SWEPT 1st through 3rd in IX, meaning 100% of our IX entries placed in the top 3!
In fact, AA performed superbly in Extemp overall, with 6 out of 7 entries advancing to elimination rounds.
In both USX and IX, AA earned 5 out of the 6 total "Top 3" awards.
AA also had 100% of its oratories advance through semifinals into finals.
Vincent '25, Sara '25, Meryem '25 and Ayla '25 represented more than HALF of all finalists in Speech!
Meryem, in her third tournament ever in OO, earned straight "1s" in prelims.
Team Shout-Outs
To Meryem, Ayla, Sara, and Vince — "for being such wonderful fellow competitors in OO. We were always so supportive of each other and I've never felt like there was real competitiveness amongst us and we've always been very supportive of each others' successes. It's been wonderful to compete with them and I'm so proud of all of us."
Eesha — "for always being there to ask how rounds went and if we needed help constructing arguments"
Ethan and Marcelo — "for demonstrating a great mindset even though they didn’t break."
Darin — "for being a fantastic partner and assisting a me as a less experienced debater without ever complaining."
Athena — "because she helped me a lot when it came to getting flows against opponents i had coming up."
Abbott — because "he invited me to practice my speech in front of him when I was nervous about it."
Jaycee, Anagha, William, Akilan — "they came to watch my speech and it felt really really good especially because I collected anecdotes from them for the piece"
Elizabeth — "Going into my Semi round, Elizabeth sat down with me and worked through strategies to help get my case across."
"All of the extemp novices who absolutely crushed the tournament!"
"All the seniors for being so passionate for speech and debate. I am going to miss all of them."
OVERALL HIGHLIGHTS
Debate:
- More than half of all debate entries advanced to elimination rounds
- 4 entries were undefeated
- 2 entries never dropped a ballot
- 2 events closed out 1st place
- AA won three of the 5 debate events!
- We had 11 state finalists — and almost half of these were state championship titles!
- In total, we took home FIVE state championship titles in debate!
- AA LD has now won LD in back-to-back state championships (2024 and 2025!)
- AA PF won the state championship for the FIFTH time since 2021 — 3 of those times being close-outs!
Speech:
- 12 out of 15 AA entries advanced to eliminations
- 1 entry was undefeated in prelims, earning straight "1s" (picket-fencing)
- 6 entries were in the top three in their event!
- We had Finalists in every event that we entered
- 7 events featured AA finalists in them!
- 1 state champion in Speech!