MSU DEBATE TEAM FINISHES SECOND AT NORTHWESTERN TOURNAMENT

2/20/2003

EAST LANSING, Mich. - The Michigan State University debate team returned last week from the Owen L. Coon Memorial Debate Tournament with a second-place finish, another first- place speaker award and was the only squad to have two teams reach the quarterfinals.

Held annually at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., this was the last regular season tournament before the national championships. The tournament took place Feb. 7-10, and included 150 teams from colleges and universities around the nation.

The MSU team of Greta Stahl, a James Madison junior from Shelby Township, and Dave Strauss, a James Madison junior from East Lansing, won seven of eight preliminary debates, earning them the sixth seed going into the elimination debates. In the elimination rounds, Stahl and Strauss defeated the University of Iowa, the University of California at Berkeley, the University of Michigan and Wake Forest University to advance to the final debate.

The duo finished second in the finals, losing a close 2-1 decision to a team from Emory University. Stahl and Strauss both received top-25 speaker awards at the tournament.

"Despite the narrow loss, our coaching staff was all smiles afterward," said Michael Eber, interim director of debate. "We know that Stahl and Strauss have positioned themselves as one of only a handful of serious contenders to win one of the two national championship tournaments."

An MSU team of East Lansing natives Calum Matheson, a social relations senior, and Joe Siegmann, an international relations and political economy senior, won seven of eight preliminary debates, earning them the ninth seed going into the elimination debates.

Matheson and Siegmann reached the quarterfinals in the elimination rounds, defeating teams from Emory University and Fort Hays State University, last year's Cross Examination Debate Association (CEDA) national champions. Matheson was named the top individual speaker of the entire tournament.

The general topic for the debates this year is whether the U.S. government should ratify and implement one or more of several major international treaties, including banning the death penalty, prohibiting nuclear testing, enacting a bilateral arms control agreement with Russia, or involving the International Criminal Court in establishing policies to counteract global warming.

Three tournaments remain for the MSU debate team, all of which are national championships. The first is the Freshman National Championships, held the second week of March at Northwestern University. MSU is planning to send all three of its freshman teams to the event.

Following the freshman championships, the two remaining tournaments are the CEDA National Championship, to be held in Phoenix at the end of March, and the National Debate Tournament in Atlanta at the beginning of April. The debate team is coached by William Repko, head coach, and Michael Eber, interim director of debate.