As the final round judges were deliberating, hundreds of people sat waiting at the Clarion Hotel Ballroom in Lexington, Kentucky.
At the front of the room stood Oliver A. ’26 and Anika G. ’26, finalists in the Public Forum Gold division at the 54th annual Tournament of Champions. Fifteen minutes later, the panel of three announced their decision: a unanimous vote for Nueva.
Oliver and Anika took first place out of the 119 entries in that event, defeating a team from Harker in finals and earning Nueva its second TOC championship. The school won previously in 2017, the year of its first graduating class, and Anika is the first woman to win the Public Forum TOC since 2021.
Throughout the tournament, teams debated about presidential war powers, but Oliver and Anika’s strategies went beyond typical policy arguments. They focused, instead, on philosophical questions about law, violence, and whether debate can change how people think.
“Debate matters because it can shape us to be different people,” Oliver said. “The way in which I now think about how power is distributed, how it is shaped over time through philosophical frameworks has been deeply influential for me.”
For debate coach Les Phillips, the final round was memorable not only because Nueva won, but because of what the judges praised.
“They were complimenting our debaters on exactly the things I wanted to hear compliments about,” he said. “[The team has] done the most amazing argument development, working hard on unusual arguments that they believed in.”
Though debate rounds themselves are between teams of two, the group’s success has been a collective effort. Over the two months leading up to TOC, the team shared their files with each other on their labyrinthean Dropbox; and when each round’s pairing is released, debaters quickly compare notes and help their teammates prepare.
“People in that time pressure still think beyond their own interests and they’re looking at their teammates,” Phillips said.
At TOC, the team has also racked up a number of successes beyond just its winning duo. Seniors Deniz S. ’26 and Max E. ’26 reached the quarterfinals, while sophomore team Etienne Y. ’28 and Chiara D. ’28 also advanced to the runoffs—a performance that Phillips said was “unheard of” from such a young team at a tournament of the TOC’s rigor. Emerging from the tournament was another promising pair: Jason R. ’29 & Abhinav I. ’28, who won four out of their seven preliminary rounds.
As Phillips looks to the next school year, he remains optimistic about the teams’ prospects. “We’ve got teams that are ready to compete at the level that Oliver and Anika had,” Phillips said. “They performed well this year and will perform well with another year of seasoning.”
