Seawolf Debaters shine at World Championships

For the second year in a row, UAA debaters were among the elite few students who qualified to compete in the elimination rounds at the World Universities Debating Championships, hosted by De La Salle University in Manila, the Philippines from Dec. 27, 2011 to Jan. 4, 2012.

The annual tournament crowns the World Champions in intercollegiate debating. Four hundred teams representing 195 universities from 43 nations attended this year's tournament. UAA's four two-person teams faced competitors from the top schools in the world, including Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard and Yale. All 400 teams participate in nine preliminary rounds in which the teams are power-matched to determine the seeding for the elimination rounds. This means that-as the tournament progresses-teams face tougher and tougher competition to remain in contention for the right to participate in knockout rounds.

When the dust of the nine preliminary rounds settled, the team of Colin Haughey (senior, Philosophy) and Brett Frazer (senior, Natural Sciences) were ranked 23rd out of the 400 teams, a position qualifying them for the elimination rounds. Only the top 32 teams are selected to advance to the elimination rounds. Of the teams from the United States-and with 64 teams participating, the U.S. had the largest contingent of any nation at the championships-only six qualified for the elimination rounds: two from Yale, one from Harvard, one from Stanford, one from Hobart and William Smith College and the Alaska team. Clearly, our debaters are among the best in the nation as well as the world.

Facing teams from Durham University (England) and Victoria Wellington (New Zealand) in the first elimination round, Haughey and Frazer opposed the motion "This House would break up media monopolies." They argued that in times of dramatic change in the field of journalism, major media conglomerates offer the resources necessary to field reporters who are able to capture stories from around the world. Ultimately, they didn't advance, but ended the tournament in the top 5 percent of teams nonetheless.

As a squad, the Seawolves' performance placed them 8th overall out of the 195 universities competing at Worlds, and second among the U.S. schools represented.  The top 10 U.S. schools are listed below:

The Seawolves now anxiously await the release of this year's world rankings of debate clubs. Their performance at the championships bodes well for them finally cracking the top 10; they were ranked 12th in the world in 2010 and moved up to 11th in 2011. The world rankings traditionally are released in February.

For more information, please contact Steve Johnson at (907) 786-4391.