The room was filled with anticipation as junior Jacob Hegna and senior Katie Super debated in the final round of the 2-Speaker State debate tournament, held at Blue Valley West on Jan. 18. After competing in the two day tournament for a total of 23 hours, the duo came out victorious, defeating the second place team from Shawnee Heights on a 3-0 decision.

“I was so excited when I found out we won just because this is the kind of accomplishment that you work towards,” Super said. “Everyone was giving each other hugs, and we were laughing and smiling. It was just really fun to feel all that happiness.”

Southwest’s first 2-Speaker State championship came right after its third 4-Speaker State win earlier in the day, according to the KSHSHAA debate website. The 4-Speaker team of seniors Greer Banks, Tristan Locke, Lexi Oatman and Emma Stewart won out of nine schools at the tournament, with a combined record of 14-2.

At the 2-Speaker tournament debaters from 5A schools across Kansas competed in six preliminary rounds. As the debaters competed farther into the tournament, successful teams would debate other successful teams to find out what team would ultimately come out as the top seed. After preliminary rounds, the top sixteen teams would qualify to out rounds, with the two final teams competing in three out rounds until finals.

At 4-Speaker State, each of the nine competing schools brought two teams – one that argued for implementing a plan in all eight rounds and another that argued against implementing the proposed plan for all eight rounds. The competitors debated teams from other schools in a round robin style tournament. The double victory is the first for the Southwest Debate team, coached by Jared Zuckerman and the second in 5A KSHSHAA state debate history.

“Pretty much my entire debate career has been working up to [winning],” Banks said. “We came together as a 4-Speaker team to really demonstrate all the work that we had done for these past four years, and even more specifically in the past year. It was a nice conclusion to my debate career.”

At the 2-Speaker tournament, Southwest brought three other teams, all of which had success. In the semifinals rounds, three out of the four remaining teams were from Southwest. Seniors Jack Ayres and Connor Davis conceded to the higher seed team of Hegna and Super, while juniors Alex Ghekas and Chris Fry lost their semifinals round. Senior Nick Edwards and sophomore Zach Novicoff lost their octofinals round.

“I would’ve liked to do more than just [making it to octofinals],” Novicoff said. “I was sad that we lost, but getting into octofinals was a great feeling and a great experience.”

The wins did not come without hard work and dedication. The debaters would spend hours every day after school researching evidence, giving practice speeches, participating in practice rounds and working with Zuckerman and the assistant coaches. The hard work paid off after Southwest reclaimed its 4-Speaker State title after losing in 2013 for the first time in Southwest’s history. Super and Hegna also went farther into the 2-Speaker competition than any other Southwest team has before.

“I feel like 4-Speaker is something that our school has already done, but I think to win both 2-Speaker and 4-Speaker shows that the school is really diverse in its talents, and it’s really strong,” Super said. “It’s really impressive on a school level to do so well and come home with so many trophies.”