Seawolves earn honors at 2014 U.S. Universities Debating Championship
by Michelle Saport |
More than 180 teams from over 50 universities across America gathered this past weekend to compete in the U.S. Universities Debating Championship at Purdue University. The Seawolf Debaters once again proved themselves as serious contenders in their last competitive tournament of the season. The team brought home numerous trophies as well as the privilege of hosting the 2015 championship here in Alaska.
Topics up for debate ranged from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to the validity of pre-nuptial agreements. After six preliminary rounds, the team of Matthieu Ostrander and Jonathan Taylor advanced to elimination rounds as the No. 12 seed out of the 32 that qualified for the break.
After succeeding through the octofinal round, Ostrander and Taylor were asked to oppose the assassination of political leaders as a legitimate tactic of war. The Seawolves finished with quarterfinalist awards, placing them in the top 16 of the 181 teams who competed. Ostrander also took home honors as the 10th-place overall speaker out of the 362 speakers present.
The biggest news of the weekend happened when Jonathon Taylor was recognized as the top novice speaker in the U.S., debate's equivalent of "rookie of the year" honors. Though a junior at UAA, Taylor is in his first year of competitive academic debating, having been discovered though the Cabin Fever Debates, UAA's intramural debating tournament. The last time the Seawolf squad had the national novice speaker on their team was when UAA won the honor in back-to-back years: Jenny Burgess was recognized in 1998 and Quianna Clay took top honors in 1999.
Beyond the competitive success of current Seawolf squad, alumni of the program who traveled to the U.S. Universities Debating Championship as independent adjudicators also excelled. Brittany Bennett and Colin Haughey advanced to the semifinal round of the America's Cup, a tournament that takes place just before USUDC for debate alumni serving as judges. Brett Frazer advanced to the final round. All three Seawolf alums, along with the program's current assistant coach Amie Stanley, were selected to judge elimination rounds of the national championship based on their quality ranking from debaters and other judges. Steve Johnson, director of the Seawolf Debate Program, received the Top Judge award for earning the highest feedback score from debaters and fellow panelist judges during the preliminary rounds.
The next U.S. Universities Debating Championship will occur in April of 2015, right here in Alaska. UAA successfully bid to host the tournament, which will bring the best debate teams in America to UAA next spring for one of the largest intercollegiate activities hosted at UAA in recent history.
For more information, please contact Steve Johnson at (907) 786-4391 or visit the Seawolf Debate website.
"Seawolves earn honors at 2014 U.S. Universities Debating Championship" is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.