Seawolf Debate Team storms the East Coast, Yale

by Kathleen McCoy  |   

At one point in the competition, the Alaska team was the only American team left in the tournament and faced a final round of all Canadian teams.

Members of the Seawolf Debate Team competed in the Yale Intervarsity Debating Tournament over the weekend, completing the last leg of an East Coast tour that began at the University of Toronto the weekend of Oct. 17-18. Building on their final round appearance at the U of T tournament, the Seawolves again distinguished themselves at Yale, dominating a competitive field that featured over 120 teams from Stanford, Harvard, Princeton and a host of other American and Canadian universities.

The Seawolves entered two teams in the competition. Both competed in five preliminary rounds contesting motions that ranged from drawing down troop levels in Afghanistan to whether Medicare should provide funding for abortions. At the end of the preliminary rounds, the team of Michaela Hernandez (junior, Philosophy) and Colin Haughey (junior, Philosophy) had amassed nine points, one point shy of that needed to advance to the elimination rounds.

The Seawolves' other team -- Michael Imeson (graduate student, Public Administration) and James Kilcup (senior, Languages) -- repeated their performance from the previous weekend by ending the preliminary phase of competition as the top-seeded team in the tournament. Even more impressive was that Imeson and Kilcup had compiled a perfect record, having not lost a single point in any of the preliminary rounds.

In the quarterfinal round, Imeson and Kilcup quickly dispatched with teams from their competitors by challenging a motion that proposed to pay punitive damages from civil lawsuits directly to the government. In semifinals, the Seawolves were assigned to advocate a complete withdrawal of Israeli settlements in West Bank and advanced to the final round on a unanimous decision.

At that point in the competition, the Alaska team was the only American team left in the tournament and faced a final round made up of teams from McGill, the University of Toronto and Queens University, all from Canada.

In the final, Imeson and Kilcup opposed a motion that considered substantial reform to the laws that protect endangered species and, although they established a compelling moral position about the consequences for our stewardship of the earth, they had to be satisfied with finalist honors at the tournament, as the second-seeded team from the University of Toronto was the judges' favorite in the final round.

Kilcup and Imeson were also recognized as the 4th and 3rd speakers at the tournament out of the over 240 debaters entered.

These two tournaments are the largest and most prestigious North American debating competitions held in the format of the World Universities Debating Championships. Kilcup and Imeson's performance arguably establishes them as the top team in the U.S., and certainly among the top teams in North America.

For more information about the Seawolf Debate program, please contact Steve Johnson at (907) 786-4391.

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