Westwood High School debate team takes home the national championship win

AUSTIN (KXAN) — The Westwood High School debate team broke records in April, becoming the first in the school's history to win the national championship.

Seniors Ishan Sharma and Ayush Tripathi took home the title after competing against a Nashville team in the Tournament of Champions (TOC) at the University of Kentucky. The TOC is a coveted high school debate tournament held each year at the University of Kentucky, lasting for four days.

Sharma and Tripathi's win marks the sixth time a Texas school has won this championship in Policy debate. According to the press release, it is rare for a public school to win the TOC, with only a small number of teams obtaining the accomplishment.

TOC, which was created in 1972, encourages competitive speech and debate opportunities and honors the top debate teams in the country.

The tournament uses a bid system to determine who competes. If a team places high enough in certain nationally or regionally respected tournaments, it will earn debaters a bid, with at least 2 bids needed to compete. 

Prior to the TOC, the national coaches poll of policy debate ranked Sharma and Tripathi No. 4 in the country. The duo has been debating together since their sophomore year and have known each other since middle school.

Sharma immigrated to the United States during seventh grade and worked to overcome the difficulty in adjusting his language and oratory skills to American English. At Westwood High School, Sharma served as the Policy debate captain. According to the press release, it has been Sharma's dream to win the TOC.

Tripathi joined the debate team in ninth grade during the pandemic. This year, Tripathi served as president of the Westwood Speech and Debate program. According to the release, he oversaw hundreds of students across six separate national competitive events.