Woodward Caps Off Strong First Semester With Carrollton Sacred Heart Championship

The Woodward Academy debate team finished a strong first semester by winning the championship at the Carrollton Sacred Heart tournament in Coral Gables, Florida for the second year in a row. 

After opening the season with a second place finish at the Greenhill Fall Classic, seniors Mona Mahadevan and Malachi Robinson also won the Chattahoochee Cougar Classic in late September and finished second at the St. Mark's Heart of Texas Invitational in October. This marked Woodward's third consecutive championship at Chattahoochee and second consecutive final round appearance at St. Mark's. Debating with other partners, Mahadevan (with junior Nishita Ghanate and freshman Ria Thakur) and Robinson (with freshman Elizabeth Li) won the Sequoyah Autumn Argument and reached the semifinals at the Westminster tournament (both in November). 

At Carrollton, senior Callum Guo and junior Sam Wombough also reached the semifinals before being walked over by Mahadevan and Robinson. Earlier in the semester, they also reached the semifinals at the Johns Creek Gladiator Debates.

A complete list of the team's accomplishments during the season — including team awards and individual speaker awards in varsity, JV, and novice — is available here. Woodward will be back in action in January at Samford University's Bishop Guild Invitational in Birmingham, Alabama.