Hillsdale College’s debate team members made it to the final rounds in both the National Parliamentary Debate Association and International Public Debate Association competitions at the Bowling Green State University debate tournament. 

On Feb. 25 and 26, the debate team competed against 43 other schools, including Texas A&M and University of California-Davis, according to debate coach and Visiting Assistant Professor of Rhetoric Blake Faulkner. 

According to Faulkner, a third of students left town during the power outage. The students who chose to stay were still able to compete in the competition. 

Despite the weather complications, juniors Jonah Apel and Victoria Kelly were still able to enter the NPDA tournament as a team. 

“Luckily, the power came back on either Thursday evening or Friday morning, and we competed on Saturday and Sunday,” Apel said. 

Kelly and Apel debated resolutions from a variety of topics.

“The resolutions varied from policy resolutions asserting that our federal government should revise the relevant regulations after the train disaster in East Palestine, to arguing over whether Johnny Depp should return to the ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ franchise, which fit in with the tournament’s pirate theme,” Kelly said. 

Apel and his team partner, junior Victoria Kelly, debated in the NPDA rounds. They advanced to the semi-finals on Saturday and the finals on Sunday.

“Since Jonah and I advanced both days, I would say we’re doing consistently well,” Kelly said. “I know that a couple of my speeches within rounds were among the better ones I’ve done.” 

Apel said he was also pleased with the results of the tournament. 

“My partner, Victoria, did a great job and I’m grateful we were able to do the tournament together,” he said.  

Freshman Patrick MacDonald took second place in the IPDA tournament, according to Faulkner. 

The team is looking forward to nationals at the end of March, Faulkner said.

“We’ll have more to report after March is over, because we will go to a national tournament,” he said. “ We are also planning on going to a highschool tournament and having our team members act as judges. It’s a good way for students to learn debate from a different perspective.”