By Carly Watson
Michigan State University Debate reached the final four in the junior varsity division at the American Debate Association (ADA) Fall Championship last weekend.
The team of Miaomiao Zi, an interdisciplinary humanities freshman, and Glen Scully, a computer science freshman, bested teams from the Naval Academy, Monmouth University, and the University of Houston in preliminary debates.
Zi and Scully entered elimination debates as the second overall seed because of their record in preliminary debates and their high ranking as individual speakers. Scully was named fifth overall speaker and Zi fifteenth. As the second seed, they received a bye through the octafinals round.
In the quarterfinals, Zi and Scully defeated a team from the University of Houston before losing a close semifinals debate against the University of Minnesota.
“Miaomiao and Glen have been having an amazing year,” said Kevin McCaffrey, MSU Debate Assistant Coach. “They’ve had strong showings at all of the tournaments they’ve attended and semifinals at the ADA Fall Championship is an awesome result.”
The ADA Fall Championship has divisions for junior varsity and novice debaters. The junior varsity division is for students competing in their first two academic years of intercollegiate debate beyond the novice level.
Aadit Agrahara, a political theory and constitutional democracy freshman, and Tyler Buck, a political science freshman, also competed in the junior varsity division at the ADA Fall Championship with wins over Samford University, Monmouth University, and the University of Texas at San Antonio.
The Franklin R. Shirley Tournament hosted by Wake Forest University occurred concurrently and MSU Debate also reached elimination debates there.
Piper Meloche, a political theory and constitutional democracy senior, and Nate Glancy, an economics senior, reached the double octafinals after defeating teams from Dartmouth College, Gonzaga University, Binghamton University, and a hybrid team comprised of students from Oakton Community College and Macalester College.
Tony Miklovis, a social relations and policy and international relations sophomore, Joanna Gusis, a political theory and constitutional democracy freshman, David Koster, a political science and pre-law junior, Ephraim Bennett, a computer science sophomore, Arielle Gearring, a political theory and constitutional democracy freshman, and Mitchell Scott, and economics junior also competed at the Franklin R. Shirley Tournament.
Will Repko, MSU Debate Head Coach, was excited with the result. “We finished off the first semester with a lot of impressive wins and several elimination round appearances – that’s a great position to start the second semester.”
The ADA Fall Championship and Franklin R. Shirley Tournament are the last competitions of the fall semester. MSU Debate will next compete in January.
The MSU Debate team is part of the Honors College.