Hillsdale College Debate Team’s 10-hour trip to Truman State University was well worth it. In addition to setting a new record for Lincoln-Douglas debate, the Chargers team went 10 and six this weekend at The Missouri Association of Forensic Activities State Championships last weekend.
“The team did not place overall, but that had to do with the small amount of entries we had,” junior Ian Blodger said.
Only four Hillsdale students competed.
Blodger and Sophomore Bryan Brooks both made it to the elimination round in L-D. However, Brooks was matched with Blodger for the elimination round and since two team members cannot compete against one another and Blodger held the higher seat, he advanced to the next round. After advancing, Blodger took second place in the entire tournament.
“The outrounds were tough but they were really educational for me,” Blodger said. “I had to prepare in a different manner because the timing between the rounds was different. It was more similar to the timing in national competitions, so it was good practice.”
The team also competed in parliamentary debate, but none of the team members made the elimination round in this style.
“It was a very different style of parliamentary debate,” sophomore Ian Hanchett said. “We came across some very interesting rounds which we had to make up positions for on the fly.”
Brooks said that last week’s events prepared Hillsdale students for important tournaments coming up, includiwng the Pi Kappa Delta Competition and the National Forensics Association National Tournament in March and April respectively.
“In one of our parliamentary rounds, after the first five minutes of our opponents’ speech, everything that we had prepared before the round was suddenly inapplicable. Ian and I, working together within two minutes, were able to prepare multiple positions,” Brooks said.
“This is one of the hardest situations that a parliamentary debater can find himself in because we have about two minutes to provide a reason why a well-researched and prepared case is a bad idea. Even though that was the only round we won, we feel that the tournament was success for us because we excelled in the most difficult position we could be put in.”
