Debate takes top 3 places, 1st overall

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Debate takes top 3 places, 1st overall
Debate team Matthew Doggett | Courtesy

Hillsdale won first place team and the top three places in debate at Bowling Green State University this weekend.

After winning all of their preliminary rounds, sophomores Lucy Meckler and Joel Meng won their semifinal round, meeting freshmen Jadon Buzzard and T.J. Wilson in finals. Due to their better preliminary record, Meckler and Meng won first place.

“It was good to see my partner and I improve over the course of the tournament and see our effort pay off,” Meng said. “Lucy was amazing and she excels at the critical aspects of debate, which is the key driver of our success.”

The debate team competed in two back-to-back tournaments at Bowling Green State throughout the weekend: the first on Saturday and the second on Sunday.

On Saturday, sophomore Kathleen Hancock and freshman Ryan Lanier were both semifinalists in individual parliamentary debate. Both were undefeated in their preliminary rounds.

“It was cool doing so well in my first time doing this form of debate and preparing myself for all my rounds,” Lanier said.

On Saturday, in two-on-two parliamentary debate, the team of senior Duncan Voyles and sophomore Henrey Deese and the team of sophomores Brigid Majmudar and Elizabeth Owen competed in semifinals. Voyles and Deese also made semifinals on Sunday.

This was Majmudar and Owen’s first tournament of the year.

“It clarified what we need to do to prepare for future tournaments,” Majmudar said.

This was also the first time Buzzard and Wilson competed in parliamentary debate. Wilson attributed their success to a change in their strategy.

“We started the first day going 1-3,” Wilson said. “After that, we were really annoyed. We decided to comb our hair the opposite direction for the second day and we went 3-1 and won second.”  

Coach Matthew Doggett said the team brought more people than it has to any tournament this year.

“We had 17 people go,” Doggett said. “They all got along, and that’s the great part of the team this year.”