Sending only two members of the team, juniors Ian Hanchett and Lauren Holt, the Hillsdale College debate team swept the competition, bringing five awards, overall sweeps, and the state title back to Hillsdale after the March 9 debate.
The team successfully brought home the state title for the second year in a row, and the successes at the past few tournaments bode well for the upcoming national tournament.
“This means Hillsdale College is once again the best debate team in the state,” Holt said. “for the second year in a row, we defeated state teams such as Central Michigan University, Eastern Michigan University, and the University of Michigan.”
In their competition, the team won overall sweepstakes, Holt won first place as well as first speaker in Lincoln-Douglas debates, and Holt and Hanchett won second in team parliamentary. Holt also won the second place speaker award in parliamentary.
“This makes me the state champion two years running,” Holt said, “and that just makes me happy. It also means we are still the best debate team in the state.”
The tournament was especially fun, Holt said, because the teams are the local teams of the state, so they have good relationships with the competition.
The individual events team did well at the tournament as well, sophomore Ian Fury receiving sixth in extemporaneous and fifth in after-dinner speaking. Sophomore Brandon Butz also placed in after-dinner, placing third.
The team is traveling to Webster University from March 12 to 17 for the National Pi Kappa Delta tournament, in which the team competes against the best teams in the nation.
“At Pi Kappa Delta, we will be defending our two-year national title in the four-day tournament,” senior Bryan Brooks said.
