Congratulations to the Riverside High School Speech and Debate Team for winning the 2024 Cougar Classic Speech Invitational, a virtual tournament hosted on November 23 by Asheville High School in Asheville, NC. The damage from Hurricane Helene still affecting Western North Carolina prevented this year’s tournament from being held in person, but the virtual format did allow strong competition from as far away from Arizona to participate. In addition to winning the overall sweepstake award, several Riverside students won individual championships. Treesa Abraham won Program Oral Interpretation. Jose Pena-Farias won Children’s Literature. Jeffrey Yu was a double champion in Extemporaneous Speaking and Informative Speaking.

A complete list of Riverside winners follows:

• Jose Pena-Farias, 1st in Children’s Literature

• Devon Becker, 3rd in Children’s Literature

• Lucia Callahan, 5th in Children’s Literature

• Claudia Lee, 3rd in Declamation

• Stephanie Duan, 5th in Declamation

• Charline Monnier, 3rd in Dramatic Interpretation

• Lina Nguyen, 5th in Dramatic Interpretation

• Isabella Murillo, 6th in Dramatic Interpretation

• Jose Pena-Farias and Josh Maxwell, 5th in Duo Interpretation

• Dante Rementeria and Eli Golob, 6th in Duo Interpretation

• Jeffrey Yu, 1st in Extemporaneous Speaking

• Isabella Murillo, 4th in Extemporaneous Speaking

• Kenneth Zalewski, 6th in Extemporaneous Speaking

• Devon Becker, 3rd in Humorous Interpretation

• Manav Bajaj, 6th in Humorous Interpretation

• Sashwath Sivaraman, 4th in Impromptu Speaking

• Kenneth Zalewski, 5th in Impromptu Speaking

• Jeffrey Yu, 1st in Informative Speaking

• Sashwath Sivaraman, 4th in Informative Speaking

• Joseph Liu, 6th in Junior Varsity Lincoln Douglas Debate

• Suprith Vandanam, 10th in Junior Varsity Lincoln Douglas Debate

• Annika Killian and Gabriel Killian, 4th in Junior Varsity Public Forum Debate

• Navmika Anish, 2nd in Novice Reading

• Mikel Eguiraun, 5th in Novice Reading

• Pranita Kata, 5th in Original Oratory

• Enyonam Toklo, 6th in Original Oratory

• Treesa Abraham, 1st in Program Oral Interpretation

• Dante Rementeria, 2nd in Program Oral Interpretation

• Eli Golob, 5th in Program Oral Interpretation

• Enyonam Toklo, 6th in Program Oral Interpretation

• Rebecca Han, 2nd in Varsity Congressional Debate: House

• Shohom Saha, 2nd in Varsity Congressional Debate: Senate