Greenwich High sophomores win top prize at Ivy League Debate
GREENWICH — Greenwich High School sophomores Ambika Grover and Arjun Kishore took home the top prize at the Ivy League Invitational Parliamentary Debate at Columbia University, defeating 90 other teams.
In addition to their stellar team performance, they each won an individual Speaker Award; Ambika placed third and Arjun placed 55th out of 182 debaters.
“During the pandemic Arjun and Ambika have flourished in the national parliamentary debate circuit while also participating in multiple statewide competitions,” said Aaron Johnson, Greenwich High School debate coach and library media specialist.
“Their leadership has brought more students to the GHS debate club and increased interest in different debate formats. Their leadership is highly valued within the club, and I am confident that they will remain on top of the national leaderboard,” he said.
In two long days of virtual competition on Feb. 20 and Feb. 21, Ambika and Arjun emerged as the winners; their accomplishments earned them entrance into the National Tournament of Champions in April, hosted by the University of Kentucky.
“To come in first in the Ivy League Parliamentary Debate Championships at Columbia was an absolutely incredible experience,” Ambika said. “After the preliminary day of the competition, we were so excited to have a record of 5-0 and to advance to Octofinals — we never imagined that we could go on to win the three elimination rounds and grand finals on Sunday. It was definitely a challenging and fun experience, as we ended up debating in nine rounds that were 1.5 hours each. Arjun is a great partner, and we are so happy that we were able to win this for GHS.”
Arjun said, “For me it was bittersweet. I was elated to win a huge competition like this, but I also wished that it could have been in person and was wistful of the old debate experience.”