Woodward Wins Third Consecutive Georgia State Debate Championship

Woodward Academy won its third consecutive Georgia State Debate Championship in early March by “closing out” the final round of policy debate at the Georgia Forensic Coaches Association State Championships. Juniors Mona Mahadevan and Malachi Robinson and seniors Alanna Pearson and Arjun Srinivasan earned the 2018 state title for Woodward.

Hosted this season by Lassiter High School in Marietta, the GFCA State Championships include public and private schools from all Georgia High School Association classification levels. Teams must qualify for entry by reaching the semifinals of at least one regular season invitational tournament. Woodward has now won five of the eight Georgia State Debate Championships since the GFCA took over its administration and created a unified state tournament. Prior to the 2010-2011 season, the GHSA administered separate state debate tournaments for schools in each classification level. In the GFCA era, Woodward was already the only school to win back-to-back state championships (something they accomplished twice). Woodward is now also the only to win back-to-back-to-back titles. 

After achieving 5-0 and 4-1 records in this year’s preliminary rounds, Woodward’s two teams advanced to the elimination rounds as the tournament’s first and second seeds. In the quarterfinals, Mahadevan and Robinson defeated Westminster while Pearson and Srinivasan defeated Chattahoochee. In the semifinals, Mahadevan and Robinson defeated Chattahoochee and Pearson and Srinivasan defeated Pace Academy. By winning both semifinals rounds, Woodward “closed out” the finals to finish first and second in the state for the second year in a row.

Individually, all four Woodward debaters also earned top speaker awards: Mahadevan placed sixth, Pearson placed fourth, Robinson placed second, and Srinivasan was the tournament’s top speaker. He joins Jason Sigalos ‘12 (twice) and Tripp Haskins ‘17 as the only Woodward students to earn the top speaker award at state. 

This is the second varsity state championship for Pearson and the third varsity state championship for Srinivasan. Pearson also won the GFCA’s First Year State Championship (in 2015) and Second Year State Championship (in 2016).

The complete list of Woodward teams that have won the unified varsity Georgia State Debate Championship is as follows:

• • Rahim Shakoor ‘12 & Jason Sigalos ‘12 (2011 and 2012)

  • Ali Abdullah ‘17 & Arjun Srinivasan ‘18 (2016)

  • Max Abramson ‘17 & Tripp Haskins ’17, Alanna Pearson ‘18 & Arjun Srinivasan ‘18 (2017, close-out)

  • Mona Mahadevan ‘19 & Malachi Robinson ’19, Alanna Pearson ‘18 & Arjun Srinivasan ‘18 (2018, close-out)