The Hillsdale College debate team took first place at its most recent tournament on Oct. 16, hosted by Bowling Green State University in Ohio.
The team participated in both one-on-one, or International Public Debate Association, and partner style, or National Parliamentary Debate Association, competitions at Bowling Green against 40 other teams from schools such as the University of Michigan and Cornell University.
“Whoever got the most points based upon the number of rounds that they won as a team, wins or loses the tournament as a whole,” said team coach and Visiting Assistant Professor Blake Faulkner ’12.
Faulkner said he was surprised with the team’s success because about half of the team is new to debate. The team doubled in size this year, growing from 10 to 20 members. Faulkner attributed the team’s growth to the switch from online to in-person tournaments this year.
“Last year, we had entirely digital tournaments,” Faulkner said. “This year, they have opened up more debate stuff. We had a particularly good year for student interest.”
The Bowling Green tournament was a swing tournament, meaning team members competed on both Oct. 15 and Oct. 16. They took second place the first day and won the sweepstakes the second day.
The debate team took first place in their first tournament of the year hosted by Queen’s College from Sept. 23-24.
Junior Emma Sanders and sophomore Jeff O’Neill received speaker awards, and senior Frankie Vitale and sophomore Ben Brown got first place.
The type of debate the team does is conducive to new members, Faulkner said.
“There are forms of debate that are very technical, and we’re not doing those kinds of debates, so it’s easy for new folks to participate right away,” Faulkner said.
Freshman Emma Kate Mellors received first place and won best speaker in the Novice IPDA division at Bowling Green. The next day, she qualified for the quarterfinals and received fourth best speaker in the Novice IPDA division. She also won a speaker award.
“I definitely didn’t expect to do as well as I did at the debate tournament earlier this month,” Mellors said. “However, the veterans on our team have dedicated hours to teaching us and are incredibly successful and experienced. Doing as well as I did at my first tournament definitely makes me feel some pressure but also makes me so excited to see how much I can grow.”
The debate team practices every Wednesday night for about an hour by arguing for 20-30 minutes against each other. They also participate in lectures or drills on Mondays.
Sophomore Vivian Turnbull said her favorite part of debate is getting ready with her team.
“My highlights are always team prep,” Turnbull said. “We have 20 minutes for NPDA to come up with our case, so it’s a frantic time of bouncing ideas off each other, researching, and memorizing statistics.”
The debate team will compete at Marshall University in West Virginia this weekend, followed by Muskingum University on Nov. 5, and St. Anselm University on Nov. 12.
“We compete against schools that are much bigger than us and have more funding all the time,” Faulkner said. “We have a pretty good record against those teams.”
