The Rock Ridge High School debate team won the 2026 VHSL State Championship at Randolph-Macon College in Ashland, Virginia, on Saturday, April 18. The twelve-student team won the overall sweepstakes with an all-around performance across multiple formats.
"Debate as an activity provides the opportunity to learn one of the most vital skills of the 21st century, which is communication,” said team co-sponsor Rama Srinivasan. “Rock Ridge High School's debate program has yielded itself to the success in the various debate events, especially Public Forum debate, due to the commitment of our debaters to building and honing this important skill of communication. I cannot be prouder of our team!”
Students placed in several competitions, including:
Lincoln - Douglas Debate:
Aanya Bhardwaj placed 2nd and is the State Runner Up.
Public Forum Debate:
Krish Behera & Mihir Nimkar placed 1st and are the state champions in public forum debate, while their fellow teammates, Sai Cherukuri and Shaun Sahayadarlin, placed 3rd.
Policy Debate:
Srihith Mudakala & Aniketh Guttikonda placed 2nd and are the state runner-ups, while their teammates, Shreyas Gowrishetty and Anirudh Manikandan, placed 3rd.
Student Congress debaters, Aradhana Ravi placed 7th, and Kaushal Kalluri placed 8th to round off the top 10 positions in the chamber, while Gabriel Gantos placed 14th in the chamber.
“Becoming state champions, both in public forum and the school sweepstakes, meant a lot to us because it felt like we had finally 'made it',” said Mihir Nimkar. “Behind our 1st place victory were hours planning out how our arguments would flow and truly dissecting complex, real-world topics. It was the culmination of three years of preparing hard for monthly debate tournaments on new topics while learning so much along the way."