The Cary Academy Speech and Debate program recently concluded its regular season with its annual end-of-year Celebration, highlighting an exceptional year of accomplishments and honoring the graduating class of seniors. The 2024–2025 season marked the most successful year in the program’s 20-year history.

Cary Academy once again claimed the title of State Champions, earning the Overall Sweepstakes Award for the second consecutive year. For the first time ever, the team also swept all three major categories at the State Tournament—Overall, Speech, and Debate Sweepstakes. Notably, this was the team’s first win in the Debate Sweepstakes category, and its third consecutive victory in the Speech Sweepstakes.

Several CA students were crowned individual state champions in five events:

• Anna Benjamin, ’27 – Extemporaneous Speaking and Impromptu Speaking
• Victor He, ’27 – Junior Varsity Congressional Debate
• Riley Powell, ’27 – Junior Varsity Lincoln-Douglas Debate
• Aviva Wang,’26 & Chloe Lin, ’26 – Junior Varsity Public Forum Debate

Anna Benjamin made history as the first Cary Academy student to win two individual state championships in the same year.

Additionally, CA students finished as runners-up in six events:

• Holden Lim, ’27 – Declamation and Original Oratory
• Sherry Lu, ’27 – Program of Oral Interpretation
• Derek Han, ’25 – Varsity Lincoln-Douglas Debate
• Pranav Ravulapati, ’25 & Raya Jung, ‘26 – Varsity Public Forum Debate
• Teagan Bolt, ’28 & Tess McSwain, ’28 – Junior Varsity Lincoln-Douglas Debate

Throughout the regular season, a record number of CA students earned individual titles at prestigious national-level competitions. Notable achievements include:

• Yul Choi, ’26 – Original Oratory at Yale Invitational and Florida Blue Key
• Holden Lim, ’27  – Declamation at GMU Patriot Games and Cavalier Invitational
• Riley Ro, ’25 – Lincoln-Douglas Debate at the Mid America Cup
• Kajal Parmar, ’26 – Extemporaneous Speaking at GMU Patriot Games
• Patrick Liu ’26 – Lincoln-Douglas Debate at Cavalier Invitational
• Raya Jung  & Pranav Ravulapati, ‘25  – Public Forum Debate at John Lewis Invitational
• Adrian Soldevila ’27 & Agam Pannu ’27 – Novice Public Forum Debate at Cavalier Invitational

At the Harvard National Tournament in February—the largest regular-season tournament in the country—Etienne Van Tonder, ’26 emerged as the champion, while Claire Zhong, ’27 was named Top Speaker in Junior Varsity Lincoln-Douglas Debate. This marked the third consecutive year, and the fourth time overall, that Cary Academy has claimed this title.

These accomplishments contributed to Cary Academy qualifying a record number of students to the prestigious Tournament of Champions, hosted annually by the University of Kentucky.

Unprecedented Postseason Qualifications

Cary Academy also achieved record-breaking success in qualifying for the National Speech and Debate Association (NSDA) National Tournament and the National Catholic Forensic League (NCFL) Grand National Tournament.

At the NSDA Carolina East District Tournament, CA won both the Overall and Debate Sweepstakes, qualifying 20 students for NSDA Nationals in June. Impressively, Cary Academy has the most Lincoln-Douglas Debate qualifiers of any school in the country, with five students.

NSDA Nationals Qualifiers:

• Public Forum: Daphne DiFrancesco ‘26 & Raya Jung ‘26, Aviva Wang ‘26 & Chloe Lin ‘26
• Lincoln-Douglas: Rebecca Liu ‘25, Derek Han ‘25, Riley Ro ‘25, Patrick Liu ‘26, Alex H. Liu ‘26
• Informative Speaking: Hailey Zhang ‘25
• Foreign Extemporaneous Speaking: Kajal Parmar ‘26
• U.S. Extemporaneous Speaking: Anna Benjamin ‘27
• Original Oratory: Holden Lim ‘27, Yul Choi ‘26
• Program Oral Interpretation: Sherry Lu ‘27
• Congress (House): Victor He ‘27
• World Schools Debate: Rehan Mahmood ‘26, Akash Mani ‘26, Anjali Narahari ‘26, Serena Patel ‘26

At the NCFL Grand Nationals in Chicago, 19 students will compete following Cary Academy’s tenth consecutive championship in the Dogwood Speech and Debate League. 

NCFL Grand Nationals Qualifiers:

• Original Oratory: Holden Lim ‘27, Rhea Zhou ‘26, Hasaan Mahmood ‘27
• Extemporaneous Speaking: Anna Benjamin ‘27, Kajal Parmar ‘26, Victor He ‘27
• Oral Interpretation: Kenna Zhang ‘26, Anika Kadumpalli ‘25
• Declamation: Holden Lim ‘27, Camille Monds ‘27, Shriya Harkara ‘27
• Duo Interpretation: Kainda Nzinga ‘25 & Chelsea Cui ‘25
• Public Forum: Raya Jung ‘26 & Pranav Ravulapati ‘25, Chris Yonas Daniel ‘26 & Noha Bezuayehu ‘27, Sunny Zhao ‘27 & Sophia Curtis ‘27
• Lincoln-Douglas: Alex H. Liu ‘26, Claire Zhong ‘27, Riley Powell ‘27, Etienne Van Tonder ‘26
• Congress: Serena Patel ‘26

This expanded access to national tournaments has been made possible in part by a generous gift to the school, helping offset the cost of participation and making these prestigious opportunities more accessible than ever.

Historic Individual Achievements

Two seniors achieved historic milestones this season:

• Rebecca Liu, ’25, was named to the USA Debate Team, the official national team sponsored by the NSDA for international competition. She is the first Cary Academy student—and the first student from North Carolina—to receive this honor.
• Derek Han, ’25, broke the all-time Cary Academy record for NSDA points earned in competition, with 2,144 points—more than 100 points above the previous record, which had stood for eight years. He will have the opportunity to add to his total at NSDA Nationals in June.