Liberty Senior Natalie Schaller Wins NSDA Nationals; Peninsula Tambe-Wang Win Policy
Congratulations to Liberty Senior High School’s Natalie Schaller for winning the 2017 National Speech and Debate Association National Championship! In finals, Natalie defeated Savannah High School’s Nathan Davis on an 8-7 decision. In addition, congrats to the following students for placing in the top 6:
- Natalie Schaller (Liberty Senior)
- Nathan Davis (Savannah)
- Shankar Krishnan (Ridge)
- Karchen Lhatoo (University)
- Jackson Deconcini (Brentwood)
- John Michael Magloire (Chaminade)
Congratulations also to Trent Gilbert (West Des Moines Valley), Benjamin Lipkin (Copley), Noah Love (Flathead), Isaac Spanjer (Fargo North), and Mary Talamantez (Bonita Vista) for placing in the top 11.
In policy debate, Peninsula’s Raam Tambe and Jerry Wang won the National Championship for the second consecutive year. This makes them the only team to win the tournament twice in NSDA history.
Raam, as well as his coach, Scott Wheeler, who also won the Unger Cup for coaching the most successful team across the NSDA, NDCA, TOC, NCFL, and NAUDL championships, will be teaching at SJDI this summer. In addition, Jackson Lallas, who coaches the 5th-place winner Jackson Deconcini in LD debate, will be teaching at LADI as well.