Seventeen-year-old Milton resident, Anish Dayal, a senior, and sixteen-year-old Harrison Hall, a junior from the Westminster Schools in Atlanta, won the 61st Barkley Forum National Policy Debate Tournament, a prestigious invitational tournament with a highly competitive field comprised of the top 230 debaters from 35 states across the nation.

The Barkley Forum for High Schools (BFHS) is committed to supporting high school forensics since 1956 and continues today to provide top-flight national debate competition. With over 74 schools in attendance, Dayal and Hall, currently the fourth ranked team in the nation, won 10 consecutive rounds to reach the championship. Along the way in the semifinals, they triumphed over the No. 1 team in the nation from the Blake School inMinnesota. After a debate about the merits of the United States Governments surveillance policies, Dayal and Hall were victorious over Peninsula in a 22-5 decision coming from a panel of judges known as the Barkley Forum Key Coaches.