Speech and Debate Wins Big

Following its trend of high-level success, the Speech and Debate team successfully moved on to the national stage.

Zayd Qidwai, Staff Reporter • March 17, 2026

Speech and Debate at the Regional Speech and Debate Competition.

At the National Speech and Debate Association (NSDA) Virginia Qualifier, Joshua Hart and Andrew Saleh placed first, allowing them to move on to the National Speech and Debate Tournament. Lujain Alaweh and Alexis MacKay also placed second alternatives for the NSDA VA Qualifier.

Second alternative means that if competitors from Virginia withdraw from the national tournament, Alaweh and MacKay are second in line to take their places.

At the Virginia High School League (VHSL) Regional Speech Competition, Ivan Londergan placed second in Impromptu Speaking, while Hart also placed second in Extemporaneous Speaking, allowing for both to advance to the super regional speech tournament.

At the VHSL Regional Debate competition, Natalie Gauldfedlt and Isabelle Ferney won 2nd place in Policy, and Roshan Shah placed 3rd in Student Congress. Ayana Chowdhury and Nelson Berrios Santaigo also placed in Congress; all of these teams will move onto Super Regionals. Due to these results, the whole team placed as the 4C Runner-up.

Speech and Debate has a more unique competition road, as VHSL has regionals, super regionals, and then ends with the state competition. To go to the national stage, students have two opportunities. They can either compete at the Virginia Qualifiers for the NSDA or the Virginia Qualifiers for the National Catholic Forensics League (NCFL).

Since both Hart and Saleh qualified for nationals, they will travel to Richmond this June. Ms. Gusman, the Speech and Debate coach, said, “Hopefully we will get some [students] qualified for NCFL.” For these competitions, there’s roughly a month to prepare; topics of the competitions change on a monthly or bi-monthly basis.

Since Dominion had opened, students from the speech and debate team had successfully attended state competitions. “The very first year Dominion was in existence, we qualified a team for nationals,” said Gusman.

The team is excited to move onto Super Regionals, as they begin their hard preparation. Shah said, “My mindset going into the tournament is that I’m confident and that I’m a leader in the chamber.”

About the Contributor

Zayd Qidwai, Staff Reporter

Zayd Qidwai is a Staff Reporter and senior at Dominion High School, who is serving his second year with DHS Press. He continues Journalism because he finds the class entertaining and informative. If Zayd isn’t in class, you can find him outside of Dominion playing his instrument with the marching band, playing clash royale when he should be doing calculus homework, or eating ice cream.