UAA debaters advance to the Quarterfinals of the Trinity Intervarsity
Amy Parrent and Matthew Fox claimed top honors over the weekend at the Trinity Intervarsity, a major international debating competition held in Dublin, Ireland. The Trinity IV draws top teams from the UK, US and Western Europe for three days of intense competition in the British Parliamentary debating format.
After debating five preliminary rounds on topics ranging from whether victims of domestic violence should be held responsible for crimes they commit as a result of their abuse to whether Romeo and Juliet should be taught in schools, Parrent and Fox advanced to the single-elimination phase of the tournament ranked 14th of the 84 teams entered in the competition. Notably, the team of Matthieu Ostrander and Matthew Stinson were only a single preliminary point away from advancing to the quarterfinal in their first European tournament.
In the quarterfinal round, the Seawolves faced tough teams from Bates, St. Andrews, and Leeds, where they were assigned to propose the motion “Allowing women in the front lines is a victory the feminist movement.” Arguing that having the opportunity to participate in combat maximized choice for women, the judges ultimately found the arguments from Bates and St. Andrews in the top half of debate more compelling and the Seawolves did not advance.
The Seawolves are home for February and March as they host the Cabin Fever Debates, UAA’s Intramural Tournament for students not actively involved on the competitive team. Debates will be held Tuesday evenings from January 29 – March 5th at 7 PM in SSB 118 and are open to the public. The final round will be held Thursday, March 7th. The Seawolf Debate team will return to competition in early April for the US Universities Debating Championship.
On December 1-2, 12 members of the Seawolf Debate Team traveled to the University of California Davis to compete in the Davis Debates. This year's event boasted 44 of the top teams in the up and down the West Coast.
Over the course of six preliminary rounds and two elimination rounds, the debaters engaged one another on a diverse set of topics ranging from whether the west should reject Egypt’s new constitution to whether unilateral climate engineering should be allowed to whether federal judges should be subject to Senate confirmation.
At the conclusion of six preliminary rounds, the top eight two-person teams advanced to the semifinal round. Among those eight teams were three teams representing UAA. The teams of Amy Parrent & Matthew Fox, Brittany Bennett & Kelsey Waldorf and Matthew Stinson & Matthieu Ostrander advanced to the semifinal round to debate whether or not the west should reject Egypt’s new constitution. A fourth UAA team, Jonathan Stinson & Bexley Brown, missed the break to elimination rounds by only a single preliminary point of the possible 18 tournament points.
After a superb showing in the semifinal, Parrent & Fox gained themselves a spot in the final round against two teams from the University of La Verne and one from Seattle University. At the end of the competition a team from the University of La Verne was named champion and our Seawolves took home 2nd Place.
Nevertheless, four Seawolves distinguished themselves in the top 10 of more than 80 speakers in the tournament once again demonstrating the depth of talent on our team: Parent (2ndspeaker), Fox (3rd speaker), Waldorf (5th speaker), and Bennett (9th speaker).
The team is now preparing for its final and most challenging competition of the fall semester, the World Universities Debating Championships to be held in Berlin at the end of December. Upon its return, we are looking forward to hosting the 7th Annual Cabin Fever Debates, UAA’s intramural tournament for students not actively involved in the competitive debate team.For more information, please contact Steve Johnson (786-4391) or Amie Stanley (786-4354). You may also visit the team's website at www.uaa.alaska.edu/seawolfdebate
The Seawolf Debate team continued its pattern of success at the Huber Debates hosted by the University of Vermont on November 3-4. Of the five teams traveling to represent UAA, one team made it all the way to finals, two more to quarterfinals, and a third to Novice finals. This feat was particularly impressive considering that of the 80 teams assembled at the tournament from all over the US, only the top quarter of the field would make it beyond preliminary rounds.
The tournament featured six preliminary rounds before the team of Amy Parrent and Matthew Fox met their teammates Brittany Bennett and Kelsey Waldorf in the Quarterfinal round. In another room, the team of Matthieu Ostrander and Matthew Stinson debated teams from Cornell, US Air Force Academy and Bates College. While only the team of Parrent and Fox were selected to advance to the semifinal round, the team of Parker Dahl and Emerson White were announced Novice finalists at what was their first intercollegiate debate tournament. Dahl and White debated the morality of eating meat in Novice Finals while Parrent and Fox debated whether or not children should be screened at a young age according to their ability in Semifinals. Parrent and Fox prevailed to represent Alaska in the Final round of competition on the topic of whether or not the United States should grant states the right to secede by popular referendum. In the end a team from Cornell University was chosen as the tournament champion, but nonetheless the depth of talent displayed by the Seawolf Debate team did not go unrecognized.
In addition to bringing home multiple awards for all of the teams who advanced to elimination rounds, Brittany Bennett was recognized as the 5th Place Top Speaker and her partner, Kelsey Waldorf, as the 2nd Place Top Speaker of the nearly 160 individuals competing.
The team travels next to two separate tournaments on November 16-18, one at Cambridge University and the other at the University of Victoria, BC. In addition to preparing for the 2nd to last tournament before the World Universities Debating Championship, the team has been very busy this month hosting public debates and preparing to host UAA’s spring intramural tournament, the Cabin Fever Debates.
For more information, please contact Steve Johnson at 786-4391, visit www.uaa.alaska.edu/seawolfdebate, or look for us on Facebook.
Provide Website Feedback
