The Hillsdale Debate Team won first place in the National Pi Kappa Delta Tournament hosted by Webster University in St. Louis this past week, breaking a national record in debate by winning the tournament for the third time in a row.
Along with debate Sweepstakes, the team won a variety of awards in single and team events, remaining a competitive team in a tournament against more than 70 teams from across the nation. The biannual tournament is the pinnacle of the speech and debate world in the United States, and has a qualifying processes and a system of ranking to determine who may compete each year.
Along with winning the overall first place debate sweepstakes and being the national champions, the team won a variety of awards in the specific events. Senior Andrew Dykstal took first in IDPA with a superior ranking, as well as first with a Superior ranking in Public Forum with his partner freshman Emily Runge. Freshman Anna Seiple won second in IDPA Novice and sophomore Chris Landers won first in Discussion with a superior ranking.
Juniors Lauren Holt and Ian Hanchett made it to the Quarterfinals and received an Excellent ranking, and Holt made it to the Quarterfinals in Lincoln-Douglass Open. Freshman Brianna Hearn made it to the Semifinals in Lincoln-Douglas with a Superior ranking, and with her partner freshmen Kevin Ambrose received an Excellent ranking in NPDA Novice. Sophomore Ian Fury made it to the semi-finals in IPDA and received a Superior ranking, and sophomore Dylan Hoover received an excellent in Discussion.
“This is our third national championship in a row, but that does not diminish the gravity of this accomplishment. To our knowledge, no team has ever three-peated in the one hundred year history of Pi Kappa Delta. At the beginning of the year, we knew it would be a challenge to win, given the small size and inexperience of our team,” senior Bryan Brooks said. “Every member of the team worked tirelessly, sacrificing sleep, school, and social opportunities to work toward our goal of winning Pi Kap.”
The 2013 team has no remaining members from the 2009 team, which comments on the continuing influx of talent and the coaching and team leadership, Brooks said.
“This was definitely the most satisfying way to compete at Pi Kappa Delta for the last time. To win sweepstakes for the third time in a row made the ridiculous amount of preparation work worth it,” Holt said. “Breaking in Parliamentary with Ian Hanchett was great, since this was what we were working toward. I was thrilled and terrified to break in Open LD, since the competition was insanely fierce in that field.”
The successful ending to this year’s season bodes well for the upcoming years, though several members of the team have competed in their final Pi Kappa Delta tournament.
“Bri and I did an awesome job in novice parli. We went up against teams that have been doing debate significantly longer than we have. We managed to get an ‘Excellent’ rating which is a great accomplishment. Bri and I have made excellent progress since the beginning of the year,” Ambrose said. “It took several months for us to get our individual debating styles in sync with each other. Once we did get in sync though, we were able to beat teams that we would never have been able to compete against at the beginning of the year. Bri was one of the best debate partners I could have hoped to be paired with.”
