By: Carly Watson
MSU Debate reached the Sweet Sixteen at the Owen L. Coon Memorial Debate Tournament at Northwestern University this past weekend.
Henry Martin – a second-year physics and philosophy student in the Honors College – and Stephen Lewis – a fourth-year social relations and policy major – reached the octafinals (Sweet Sixteen) after winning six of their eight preliminary debates.
Martin and Lewis defeated teams from Harvard University, the University of Kansas, Emory University, and the University of Oklahoma in their preliminary debates to enter the elimination round bracket as the seventeenth seed.
Martin and Lewis defeated a team from Northwestern University in the double-octafinals before being narrowly bested in the Sweet Sixteen by a team from Emory University that went on to win the tournament.
“It was an exciting start to the season,” said Will Repko, MSU Debate Head Coach. “The debaters have been working hard all summer, so we’re thrilled to have a strong opening tournament.”
Zaria Jarman – a fourth-year political theory and constitutional democracy major – and Hina Shehzad – an international relations major in her fourth year – also qualified for elimination debates based on their strong record in preliminary rounds.
Jarman and Shehzad beat teams from Georgetown University, Dartmouth College, Macalester College, the University of Southern California, and Baylor University to enter elimination debates as the twenty-fifth seed.
“Having multiple teams in elimination debates is a team-wide goal,” said Kevin McCaffrey, MSU Debate Assistant Coach. “Not only did Zaria and Hina reach elimination debates, but they also scored huge wins along the way.”
MSU was also represented at the Northwestern tournament by Artie Kincaid (communicative sciences and disorders), Neel Patel (international relations and economics), Cameron Buhl (social relations and policy), Will Sterbenc (social relations and policy), Isabella Foster (philosophy), and Addison Morris (philosophy) in the open division. Balin Kimbrell (mathematics) and Dame DeMaria (political theory and constitutional democracy) competed in the junior varsity division.
The Owen L. Coon Memorial Debate Tournament is the first tournament of MSU Debate’s season. Martin and Lewis have been invited to participate in the Kentucky Thoroughbred Round Robin and then the team will compete at the JW Patterson Debates hosted by the University of Kentucky in two weeks.