KU debaters moving toward national crown

Sunday, March 21, 2010

BERKELEY, Calif. — Though the men's basketball team ended all hopes of a national crown in their loss against Northern Iowa Saturday, the KU debate team pulled through with a triumphant win against a K-State team in the last round of debates Saturday at the National Debate Tournament, a bitter sweet pairing that felt appropriate given the situation.

The minute after the basketball team's loss, the third round of debates at the NDT commenced and KU’s squads all came out on top. Though the teams were upset at the basketball loss, they knew they couldn’t let the disappointment defeat their own competition.

“This one’s for Sherron,” Sean Kennedy, a junior from Leawood, said just before his team debated against K-State.

And that’s exactly what Kennedy and his partner Dylan Quigley did. With a unanimous 3-0 vote after the judges’ deliberation, Kennedy and Quigley wrangled round three with a purpose.

The team of Mathew Peterson, a senior from Wichita, and Mark Wilkins, a sophomore from Topeka debated their way to a win against Case Western Reserve University. And the third team of Christopher Stone, a senior from Derby, and Patrick Kennedy, a junior from Leawood, secured their third win of the day against Northwestern University.

The morning started off at daybreak when the squads and coaches packed up their vans with 11 tubs filled to the brim with endless folders of arguments and evidence they use during the debates.

In the debate community these pieces of evidence are known as "cards." When the team does research and ultimately finds the cards they need to help their argument, they do what is referred to as "cutting cards" — or selecting the bits of information from that evidence that will specifically support their side of the debate.

Today the squads will be competing in the fourth, fifth and sixth rounds of the tournament. Monday, after the last two rounds of the preliminaries, they break to the elimination rounds, which is bracketed and seeded like the NCAA tournament.

Ben Warner, a graduate student from Utah and one of the coaches for KU’s squads, said 16 teams would make it to the octofinals.

“The intensity is higher and people will be running around more,” Warner said. “There will be a more sizable audience and the teams will have five judges instead of three.”

Warner said the paired teams receive a list of nine judges and each team can choose two judges they don’t want.

The second day of the preliminary rounds is off to a fresh start and KU’s teams are primed for what is sure to be a lively day of contentions. They’re making the necessary preparations and the three teams appear to be ready for the squabbles that come their way.

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