National Top 20 - Congratulations to the Riverside High School Speech and Debate Team for an outstanding performance at the 2025 National Speech and Debate Association (NSDA) National Tournament, held this year in Des Moines, Iowa from June 14-21. This year marked the 100th anniversary of the national tournament, which is now the largest academic competition in the word, featuring almost 7,000 competitors representing over 1,000 from every US state and territory. The NSDA tournament also features international competition from countries such as Mexico and Taiwan. Riverside High School won a “School of Excellence in Speech” Award, an honor bestowed on the top 20 schools with the best competitive record at the tournament. Advancing to quarterfinals (top 30) in main events were senior Valeria de la Llave in Humorous Interpretation, junior Sash Sivaraman in International Extemporaneous Speaking, junior Enyo Toklo in Original Oratory, and senior Kai Tucker in the House of Representatives. Advancing to octofinals in main events were senior Treesa Abraham in Informative Speaking and senior Jeffrey Yu in United States Extemporaneous Speaking. Advancing to quarterfinals in supplemental events were Julianna Lopez Africano in Original Spoken Word Poetry and Isabella Murillo in Impromptu Speaking. Advancing to octofinals in supplemental events were Treesa Abraham in Poetry, Avi Bhatia in Storytelling, Artem Feno in Commentary, Isabella Murillo in Commentary, Cetanaa Ramanathan in Storytelling, Keerthana Sankarapu in Extemporaneous Debate, Zachary Thies in Extemporaneous Debate, and Jeffrey Yu in Impromptu. Advancing to double octofinals in supplemental events were Avi Bhatia in Expository Speaking, Sreekar Bodepudi in Extemporaneous Debate, Cata Jara in Storytelling, Charline Monnier in Prose, and Fox Vickery in Storytelling. Three coaches were honored with a diamond award, representing coaching excellence and five years of service: Jinsoo Kim, Mit Patel, and Cara Sizemore. David Dejesa was awarded his third diamond, representing 15 years of coaching excellence.