The Hillsdale College debate team returned this weekend from the Indianapolis Forensics 500 Competition wihtout any medals but with high hopes for their new team members and confidence in their competitiveness for the upcoming tournaments this semester.
The mostly inexperienced six-student team traveled to Indianapolis, Ind., this past weekend. The team, lead by debate coach and Assistant Professor of Speech Matthew Doggett, competed in the debate tournament hosted on Sept. 8. Despite the fact that they returned without any medals, the team remains unfazed, having exceeded expectations in this competition, team members said.
Senior Bryan Brooks and freshman Emily Runge earned ninth and 13th place respectively in overall speaking out of the 52 competitors, and juniors Lauren Holt and Harris Wells made it past the preliminary round but did not receive any awards from the competition.
“[We] did above expectations at a tournament we historically do very poor at due to its early placement in the season,” senior Andrew Dykstal said.
The team did not meet much success but called this first tournament a chance to test the team in the midst of rebuilding it, having lost the majority of their team since last year.
“This tournament, and this year as a whole, will be a challenge for us, as Lauren and I are the only returning students,” Brooks said.
Having lost the majority of their team since the last year to a combination of graduation, the Washington Hillsdale Internship Program, and to other campus activities, the process of rebuilding and finding new talent is front and center this year.
“It is extremely important for us to train the freshmen and incoming students, which means that we should be fairly competitive,” Brooks said, “but it will be difficult for us to compete against juggernauts in the league.”
The team will travel to the University of Western Kentucky on Sept. 28 for their second trial of the semester.
