Indiana Debate had one of its most successful showings of the year this weekend at the Wayne State George W Ziegelmueller Invitational, beating several teams from Wayne State and Wisconsin-Madison.
The team brought 10 students to compete in the tournament and entered pairings in Novice, Junior Varsity, and Varsity divisions. Debaters Stanley Njuguna (SPEA, Junior) and Abhinav Kalyan (Finance and Accounting–Kelley, Sophomore) competed for their first time at the Varsity level and held their own against top teams.
Indiana Debate swept the Novice category against teams from Wayne State and Novice debaters Olivia Little (Law and Public Policy–SPEA, junior) and Drew Bagan (Policy Analysis–SPEA applicant, freshman) took first place overall.
The team dominated the top four novice spots for speaker awards. These awards are assigned based on speaker points earned and demonstrate a debater’s skill in speaking with clarity and rhetorical power. Speaking wins came from students Olivia Little in fourth place, Drew Bagan in third place, Ziqian Lu (Undecided) in second place, and Mickey Maroney (Political Science and Management–COAS, Kelley, sophomore) in first place.
Thanks and congratulations go out to all novice debaters: Katelyn Lenahan (Epidemiology–COAS, freshman), Brian Ramirez (Finance and Business–Kelley applicant, junior), Drew Bagan, Olivia Little, Mickey Maroney and Ziqian Lu.
Indiana had its first junior varsity outrounds showing of the season with sophomore Victoria Lincourt (Law and Public Policy–SPEA) and freshman Mehul Gupta (Finance and Economic Consulting–Kelley) facing off against Wisconsin-Madison in the semifinals. Though they didn’t advance to the final round, both debaters are proud of their placing in their first competition in the junior varsity division. On their placing, Gupta said “We’re definitely glad to have made it so far, but we’re always planning on improving our showing.” Lincourt additionally was awarded the fourth place speaker award for the junior varsity division.
The Hoosier Debate team will return home to begin preparation for their next competition at Gonzaga University during the Oct 27th weekend followed by Wake Forest University in three weeks.