MSU DEBATERS CONTINUE SUCCESSFUL SEASON

11/11/2002

EAST LANSING, Mich. - The Michigan State University debate team earned second place honors at the recent Motor City Debate Tournament at Wayne State University in Detroit.

This follows a previous recognition at the Harvard University Debate Tournament, where MSU placed two teams in the "sweet 16" and received the two highest individual speaker awards. Held annually in Cambridge, Mass., the Harvard tournament is one of the most challenging of the entire semester with virtually every top debate team in the country competing.

At Harvard, the Spartan team of Dave Strauss, an international relations junior from East Lansing, and Greta Stahl, a history and international relations junior from Shelby Township, had a record of 7-1 in the preliminary debates, earning them the top overall seed going into elimination rounds.

East Lansing natives Calum Matheson, a social relations senior, and Joe Siegmann, an international relations and political economics senior, were the fifth seed going into elimination rounds with a 6-2 record. Both teams advanced into the octofinal round, also known as the "sweet 16," before being defeated.

"The overall MSU squad had another strong showing," said Michael Eber, MSU interim director of debate. "MSU's performance again places them amongst the very best debate teams in the nation."

Besides the team accomplishments at Harvard, MSU debaters also took home two impressive individual speaker awards with Matheson taking first place and Stahl placing second among more than 150 competitors. This achievement marks the fourth consecutive top speaker award for Matheson this year.

At Wayne State, MSU advanced all four of its younger teams into the elimination rounds, including the second-place team of Anjali Vats, a psychology and international relations senior from Bloomfield Hills, and Aaron Hardy, an interdisciplinary arts and humanities sophomore from Logan, Utah. Vats and Hardy earned the top seed entering the elimination rounds with a perfect 8-0 record.

Another Spartan team of Elizabeth Deluca, a James Madison freshman from Gaylord, and Nathan Gibson, a political science freshman from Sterling Heights, advanced to the semi-finals before the higher seeded MSU team went on to compete. Five individual debaters were selected among the top 10 speakers of the regional event, including Gibson who won the third- place speaker award.

Both tournaments followed the Kentucky Round Robin Tournament at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, in October, where Matheson was named the top individual speaker. Matheson has won this award two years in a row and is the first individual to do so in the 32-year history of the tournament.

MSU's next tournament is the Dixie Classic held at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C., where it will compete among 180 teams to conclude the fall semester.

William Repko coaches the MSU debaters, Michael Eber is the interim director of debate, and Alison Woidan and Dennis Lukasik are assistant coaches.