A national championship early Tuesday morning was icing on the cake for two Jayhawk debaters Nate Johnson and Brett Bricker, who were also recognized by the Cross Examination Debate Association as first-team Academic All-Americans.

In a 4-1 decision, Johnson, Manhattan, Kan., senior, and Bricker, Wichita senior, routed Wake Forest University, the defending national champion, to become the first pair from Kansas to win the National Debate Tournament championship since 1983.

The duo’s 3-2 decision in their final four match-up against the University of California-Berkeley put them into the final with Wake Forest.

Ranked second nationally before this week’s 77-team tournament at the University of Texas-Austin, Johnson and Bricker continued their success this season by finishing 11-1 in their debates overall. In the final debate, the two argued that eliminating grain subsidies in the United States would reverse anti-Americanism and would help agriculture in developing countries.

“Everyone in debate realizes you have to be on top of your game,” Bricker said. “You never really expect that you’re going to win, but you have to have expectations going into the tournament that you can win.”

Scott Harris, debate coach and professor of communication studies, said the hard work had paid off.

“Bricker and Johnson are incredible students and incredibly hard-working and deserving of their national championship,” Harris said.

Harris, who won his first National Debate Tournament title Tuesday after 18 years of coaching, said the team’s victory reflected a successful year.

“It’s an incredible feeling and impossible to describe,” Harris said. “After so many years of coming so close, to finally get over the hump, it was an incredible rush.”

Harris said that Kansas, which finished last season atop the national rankings, was geared for a top-5 finish this year. The final rankings won’t be released for another couple of weeks.

In the weeks leading up to the tournament, Bricker said, they spent 60 to 70 hours preparing.

The national championship topped off a season that included a first-time victory at the Harvard University tournament, and another first-time win at the University of Kentucky round-robin tournament at the beginning of the debate season.

Harris said the championship highlighted the University debate program’s tradition by adding to the national titles that came in 1954, 1970, 1976 and 1983.

“We achieve incredibly high levels of success and to win the championship is a continuation of that legacy,” Harris said. “Secondly, we have a tradition of having people with character and class.”

The University’s second team, comprised of Dylan Quigley, Wichita junior, and Sean Kennedy, Leawood sophomore, finished the week 4-4, just missing the tournament’s Sweet 16.

Johnson said the tournament was the final debate for both him and Bricker and said it was a nice way to finish.

“It was an exciting and emotional day all together and it was so surreal to end our last debate on a win,” Johnson said.

— — Edited by Jesse Trimble