St. Paul Academy and Summit School's debate team had an historic 1-2 finish at the 2013 State Debate Tournament held at the University of Minnesota on January 18 and 19. Two SPA teams squared off against each other in the Public Forum finals, with the team of Hagop Toghramadjian ’13 and Sam Wood ’13 taking first place and the team of Jeron Mariani ’13 and Mason Mohring ’14 taking second place. This is the first year the tournament has included a Public Forum category. According to the Minnesota State High School League’s website, “Public Forum teams of two debaters had to make persuasive and logical arguments in a manner that was accessible to a wide variety of audiences.” Judges in the category included community members Minnesota Supreme Court Justice Barry Anderson; Dr. Maya Babu, a resident in neurologic surgery at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester; Lakeville Mayor Matt Little; Meg Luger-Nikolai, an attorney with Education Minnesota; Andrew Toftey, an attorney with U.S. Bank; and Stephanie Omersa Vergin, housing program director at the U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development in Minnesota. Toghramadjian and Wood emerged as champions after two days of debate that began with 112 students from 34 schools. Schools qualified for the tournament through the section tournament process and included Apple Valley, Blaine, Blake, Cannon Falls, Champlin Park, Chanhassen, Eagan, Eastview, Forest Lake, Lakeville, Maple Grove, Minneapolis South, St. Francis, Robbinsdale Armstrong, and Robbinsdale Cooper. “I am so proud of them,” said debate coach Tom Fones. “They worked hard, debated at a high level, and had fun. As a coach you couldn’t ask for more.”