Freshman Ryan Rodell and senior Victoria Kelly won three of five preliminary rounds in a Pi Kappa Delta debate tournament at Glendale Community College in Phoenix, Arizona, March 7-11.

Hillsdale College competed against Cleveland State University, Duquesne University, McNeese State University, and Simpson College in the preliminary rounds. 

The college also sent three judges, including Director of Forensics and Debate Kirstin Kiledal, Hillsdale College Debate Team Assistant Emma Sanders ’23, and Sigrid Kiledal ’17, to the tournament. 

The tournament unexpectedly split into quarterfinals instead of splitting into octo-finals, as was originally planned, according to Kirstin Kiledal. 

“Original projections were that there would be octo-finals and they were well within that bracket,” she said. 

Rodell and Kelly competed as partners in parliamentary-style tournaments, and in individual extemporaneous speaking events, according to Rodell.

In the extemporaneous events, competitors have 20 minutes to prepare a seven-minute speech on a topic.

Parliamentary topics debated included social justice, foreign and domestic policy, and labor laws. 

Rodell said he enjoyed participating in the tournament with Kelly because they have complimentary strengths when it comes to debate. 

“She’s very good at painting a narrative of why the case matters, and I am really good at all of the technical skills, and the way debate works,” Rodell said. 

Kelly said the tournament allowed her and Rodell to become immersed in new debate techniques. 

“He was put in some new contexts that he hadn’t been in before, like parliamentary style,” Kelly said. “You basically have to be able to win the crowd over.”

Sanders said she enjoyed judging the tournament. 

“Judging is always so much fun,” Sanders said. “Watching experienced debaters perfect their strategies, while inventing new ones, and seeing new debaters improve round after round is an incredibly rewarding experience.”

According to Kiledal, the debate team plans to host a scrimmage this weekend with five Hillsdale teams. The team’s next tournament will be the Collegiate Advocacy Research Debate Conference of Champions, which will take at Western Washington University in April.