The Solon City Schools have a motto used by students and staff alike, “We are SC!” They use this chant to emphasize that they are all Solon Comets. But for the past few weeks, the initials in that chant could have meant “We are State Champions,” as Solon’s extracurricular programs have earned some state championship level results in recent state Speech and Debate, Math Counts and Chess competitions.
With 41 students competing at the state Speech and Debate Tournament this month, Solon made an impression across all of the speech and debate events. Solon High School junior Sharvi Deshpande was crowned the state Speech and Debate champion in Informative Speaking.
Other significant finishers at the state tournament included: William Stella and Minghao Gu semifinalists Two-Person Policy Debate; Cole Taylor semifinalist Impromptu Speaking; Akshara Gummadi semifinalist Informative Speaking; Jayden Perkins semifinalist Congressional Debate/House; Manasvi Gurajala semifinalist Congressional Debate/House; Sofia Patro semifinalist Congressional Debate/House; Navanya Sen semifinalist Congressional Debate/Senate; Grant Lee quarterfinalist Impromptu Speaking; Noah Prample quarterfinalist Program Oral Interpretation; Zoey Xie quarterfinalist U.S. Extemporaneous Interpretation and Maahi Bandi quarterfinalist Humorous Interpretation.
But the Solon Schools’ speech skills were not the only skills on display in Columbus. The middle school MathCounts team also was outstanding in its activity’s state competition.
Solon Middle School’s MathCounts team won first place at the state competition March 7 at the Ohio State University, with five students finishing in the top 10.
Three Solon students — Davin Shao, Nicole Bao and Aarush Sahoo were also selected for Team Ohio, a four-student team that will represent the state at the national MathCounts competition in Orlando this May.
“Making up three-quarters of Team Ohio is an unprecedented achievement, according to MathCounts coach Kendall Daulton, especially given the hundreds of students who compete at the state level each year. Coach Daulton will serve as Team Ohio’s coach at the national competition.
Other Solon students showed their expertise on the chessboard, as the Solon High School Chess team was crowned the 2026 Ohio High School State Champion. Team members are Gabriel Xiong, Louis Zhang, Jason Rathinam and Henri Van Zandweghe.
Solon’s middle and high school chess teams competed in the Ohio State Chess Championships, held March 7-8 in Akron. Along with the high school’s championship win, the Solon Middle School team placed fourth. Several students also earned individual awards: Solon High School’s Srineev Sharma for outstanding play in the 9-12 Under-1000 section; Dilakshan Joshi for his outstanding play in the 6-12 Under-600 section, and Solon Middle School’s Sanaatan Sriram and Abhijan Ghosh finished tied for 1st place individually in the 6-12 Under-600 Section and Allen Liao was recognized for his outstanding performance in the Middle School Championship Section.
In recognizing all of these accomplishments at the March 16 Solon Board of Education meeting, Solon Schools Superintendent Fred Bolden said he believes these achievements exemplify why Solon Schools are so special.
“Solon is special because it’s a combination of incredible kids, first and foremost, great families, great staff and teachers and we all come together to create this amazing thing that we have here. And these are just examples of that.”
Board President Julie Glavin added that the district should be lauded for enabling the students to have so many outstanding opportunities to compete and succeed in their passions. She also recognized the staff and coaches who offered their time and expertise to the participating students.