Seawolves continue to shine in Canadian debate competitions

Eight Seawolf debaters travelled to Edmonton, Canada, for the Hugill Cup on Dec. 3-4. After five preliminary rounds of competition, the team of Drew Cason (senior, environment and society) and Sarah Carpenter (junior, culinary arts) demonstrated their prowess by advancing to semifinals as the top seed in the field of 32 teams. Although they did not advance, the team of Brett Frazer (junior, biology) and Amy Parrent (sophomore, political science) put up a great effort, missing the cut by a single point.



Cason and Carpenter continued to shine in the semifinal by advancing to the championship round of competition. In the final, they debated teams from the University of Alberta, the University of Saskatchewan and McGill University. In the end, they did not win the tournament title and had to content themselves with a "top four" showing.



During the tournament, debaters engaged one another on a variety of current controversies such as whether or not we should impose regime change on North Korea, whether we should prosecute those who bully homosexual adolescents and whether the U.S. government should address Wikileaks.

Next up, the Seawolf Debate program travels four teams to the World Universities Debating Championships (WUDC), which is being hosted University of Botswana in Gaborone. This is the largest international debating competition and the culminating event of the Seawolves' season. The tournament will draw more than 300 teams from across the globe, and UAA will be defending its 12th place ranking in the world.  The teams of Cason and Carpenter and Colin Haughey (senior, philosophy) and Michaela Hernandez (senior, philosophy) are each traveling to the WUDC for the third team. Amie Stanley (junior, political science) and Akis Gialopsos (senior, international relations) are making their second trip to the championships. Finally, Frazer and Parrent are each making their first trip to the world championships.

For more information, please contact Steve Johnson at (907) 786-4391 or Shawn Briscoe (907) 786-4354). You may also visit the team's website.