Hillsdale College’s individual events and debate teams took fourth place together at Marshall University’s Chief Justice Invitational on Saturday and Sunday.
The debate team placed second in its team competition, with five team members earnings individual awards. The individual events team had finalists in four events. Graham Deese confirmed that the entire team had qualified for the Pi Kappa Delta Nationals in March.
Both teams competed against Ohio and Pennsylvania State universities, the University of Kentucky, Central Michigan and Butler universities, and a dozen other schools.
In Lincoln-Douglas debate, senior Graham Deese took third, while his brother Henrey, a freshman, placed eleventh. Both went 4-2 in the tournament, but a twist of fate pitted brother against brother for their octofinal round, where the senior had to take a forfeit from his younger brother to advance.
“It’s always a little disappointing when you hit someone else from your team,” Graham Deese said. “Especially in the first elimination round because both people won’t have the opportunity to move forward in the tournament. In these types of situations, we don’t actually debate, but it is the coach’s decision on who moves forward.”
Doggett selected the more experienced, older contestant to move to the next round. Graham also took fifth place speaker award.
“I wasn’t too upset about it to be quite honest,” Henrey Deese said. “I was half expecting it before they announced, and I frankly would have felt a little bad if I had advanced instead of him. He’s clearly the better of the two of us and deserved to go on.”
Alongside the Deese brothers, freshman Lucy Meckler earned 8th place speaker award in the open competition. At the novice level, freshman Hannah Johnson won the fourth place speaker award, and sophomore Sam Racioppi took the fifth place speaker award.
The debate team performed in two categories, parliamentary and Lincoln-Douglas. Unlike Lincoln-Douglas’ solo format, parliamentary has two members from each team work together. Debate coach Matthew Doggett said freshmen Joel Meng and Natalie Van Handel were new to the event but went 2-2 in the tournament.
“It’s a rather relaxed form of debate,” Henrey Deese said. “You get the topic 15 minutes before you begin the debate, which means you have to research and write your position in that limited time.”
He said the event consists of six individual events, and each team gives two “constructing” arguments, before delivering a rebuttal to the opponent’s arguments. Every round in parliamentary involves a new topic, while Lincoln-Douglas focuses on one.
“I would say that LD is probably harder,” Henrey Deese said. “Though you know the topic beforehand, it’s a lot more technical, and rounds go a lot faster, so it’s easier to make mistakes.”
The individual events team also had several finalists in its events at Marshall, a mark of success for the team, coach Matthew Warner said.
Junior Mary Blendermann took fourth in informative, fifth in program of oral interpretation, and fifth in impromptu speaking. Junior Steven Custer placed third in persuasive speaking.
“I was competing against nationally ranked award-winning speakers, so I had to pour everything into my performance in the final round,” Custer said.
Each team member, including sophomore Peter Seeley and freshman Nathaniel Turtel, participated in three speaking events.
“I worked very hard to prepare the events that I brought, including hours spent editing my scripts, polishing my delivery, and practicing with my teammates,” Blendermann said. “It was gratifying to see that hard work pay off with such a strong showing in the final rounds.”
The individual events team travels to Bradley University on Saturday for the Norton Invitational, which, according to Warner, is regarded as the fall semester’s equivalent of nationals.