Speech and debate students from Plano ISD, the district that serves Murphy and Wylie families, brought home a historic national trophy and two UIL state championships during the 2025-26 season. The Plano ISD Board of Trustees recognized the students at its Tuesday, Sept. 8 meeting.

The district's teams competed at the National Speech and Debate Association (NSDA) National Tournament in Richmond, Virginia, against 5,695 students from 1,242 schools across 50 states, Washington, D.C., and seven countries.

Plano East Senior High School won the Senator Karl E. Mundt Sweepstakes Trophy for the first time in school history. The award, given since 1938, goes to the school with the highest cumulative participation points in congressional debate at the national tournament.

Plano West Senior High School earned a 2026 School of Outstanding Distinction honor and ranked among the top 10 schools in the country. Plano Senior High School was named a School of Honor in Speech, and Jasper High School earned a School of Honor in Debate.

Several Plano West students placed in the top five nationally. Ryan Xu finished second in International Extemporaneous Speaking for the second consecutive year. Aayush Appan and Yang Bai placed third in Public Forum Debate. Roshan Shivnani placed third in U.S. Extemporaneous Speaking, and Rehan Buvvaji placed fifth in the same event.

Anika Cherukuri and Catherine Cockrell reached the national semifinals in Duo Interpretation, finishing seventh. Plano Senior High's Lawson Leblanc placed seventh in Congressional Debate: Senate. Jasper High School's Abhay Harika and Lillian Lang placed seventh in Public Forum Debate.

At the UIL Class 6A State Meet in May, Plano ISD students won two individual state championships. Class 6A is the largest classification in Texas, drawing from roughly 250 of the state's biggest high schools. Plano East's Tarwat Chowdhury won the title in Extemporaneous Informative Speaking. Plano Senior High's Riya Chhaya won in Extemporaneous Persuasive Speaking.

Plano West's Cherukuri also placed third in Prose Interpretation at the state meet, and Plano West's Varshini Arun placed fourth in Extemporaneous Persuasive Speaking.

Plano East's Ashraf Kuzbari qualified for nationals in all four years of high school, according to district results. That distinction belongs to fewer than 1% of national qualifiers. The board noted that many of the honored students had already started college and could not attend the Sept. 8 meeting in person.