HWS Debate Success in Huber Tournament
12 November 2019 HWS Debate Success in Huber Tournament
The HWS Debate Team spent the first weekend in November competing at the Huber Debate Tournament hosted by the University of Vermont. After five rounds of preliminary competition, the squad had three teams and two judges qualify for the elimination rounds of the competition. There were more than 70 teams competing and the field consisted of top ranked schools like Cornell, Duke, Rochester and McGill.
The team of Bart Lahiff 20 and Sarim Karim 22 earned the fourth seed going into the quarterfinal round. Additionally, Lahiff was ranked the 10th best speaker overall and Karim was ranked the fifth best speaker out of more than 140 competitors.
In addition, two novice teams William Lewis 23 and Elise Donovan 22, and Sreyan Kanungo 23 and Matthew Nusom 23 qualified for the novice semi-final round. After a hard-fought round on whether companies employees should have seats on the executive board, Kanungo and Nusom advanced into the novice finals where they debated the wisdom of holding a new constitution convention in the United States.
In addition to the teams impressive placement in the novice and open brackets, the tournament recognized the performance of rookie debaters who are in their first year of competition. William Lewis 23 was awarded with the third highest performance of anyone in this category, showing immense growth and capacity for success at only his second tournament of his career.
Judges Erik Wolf 20 and Assistant Coach Marlene Pierce also had success as judges, with both being selected to adjudicate the quarter-final and semi-final round of the tournament. This is the highest placement for Wolf as a judge and recognition of the high quality of argument analysis that HWS debate cultivates.
Other HWS students who competed included Andrew Barsky 23, Jacob Wallman 20, Reed Herter 22, Robert Coakley 23, Tenzin Yonten 23, William Koepp 23 and Zaheer Bowen 23. Student judges included Chris Costello 22, Liam Sullivan 20 and Noah Thirkill 23.
Up next, the team heads to Ottawa for the Father Roger Guindon Cup.
The photo above featuresSreyan Kanungo 23 and Matthew Nusom 23.