MSU Debate competed
at the Baird Debates Round Robin and Minnesota College Debate Invitational on back-to-back weekends.
Arielle Gearring, a Political Theory and Constitutional Democracy senior, and Hina Shehzad, an International Relations junior, competed at the Baird Debates Round Robin hosted by the A. Craig Baird Debate Forum at the University of Iowa the weekend of October 10-11.
Gearring and Shehzad were one of only eight teams invited to the elite tournament based on their season-long success so far. The other teams invited included Baylor University, the University of Iowa, the University of Kansas, Liberty University, New York University, the University of Southern California, and the University of Texas at Dallas.
“Round robin tournaments are invitation-only so it’s an honor to have a team invited,” said Will Repko, MSU Debate Head Coach. “Arielle and Hina have been working hard this season and I’m glad that they’re getting the recognition they deserve.”
This is the first time in team history that MSU Debate has participated in the Baird Debates Round Robin.
The following weekend, at the Minnesota College Debate Invitational, MSU Debate had two teams reach elimination debates after dominating performances in preliminary debates.
Zaria Jarman, a Political Theory and Constitutional Democracy junior, and Glen Scully, a computer science senior, won six-straight debates in the preliminary rounds at the tournament to enter elimination debates as the first seed.
Isabella Foster, a philosophy and film freshman in the Honors College, and Henry Martin, a physics and philosophy freshman in the Honors College, were also undefeated in preliminary debates and were the second overall seed.
“Our teams were absolutely rocking and rolling at the Minnesota tournament,” said Repko. “It’s hard to win six straight rounds in preliminary debates and we had two teams do it – that’s even more rare. There were two undefeated teams at the tournament, and both were from MSU.”
In addition to both teams’ perfect records in preliminary debates, MSU debaters were recognized among the tournament’s top speakers. Out of over one hundred participants, Scully was the tournament’s second overall speaker, Jarman was eighth, Martin was eleventh, and Foster was fourteenth.
In elimination debates, Jarman and Scully made it to the Sweet 16 (octafinals) before being bested by a team from the University of Georgia. Foster and Martin were in the Elite 8 (quarterfinals) with an elimination round win over a team from Wake Forest University in the octafinals before being eliminated by a team from Emory University.
“It’s been a busy couple of weekends for MSU Debate, but we have a lot to show for it. We’ve been in big, close debates and the team’s preparation and hard work shows in the results,” said Jasmine Stidham, MSU Debate Assistant Coach.
The MSU Debate team is part of the Honors College.