MSU DEBATE TEAM EARNS NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP TITLE

4/11/2002

EAST LANSING, Mich. - A stellar season performance record earned Michigan State University's debate team the 2001-02 Cross Examination Debate Association (CEDA) Seasonal National Championship.

The title is awarded to the university that has the best overall performance throughout the season, which runs from September to early April.

MSU's participation in the National Debate Tournament (NDT), with a sophomore team in the "final four" and a senior team in the "elite eight," and the CEDA nationals, where two teams reached the "final four," helped the team achieve the championship title.

The NDT tournament was held March 23-27 at Southwest Missouri State in Springfield, Mo., and the CEDA tournament was held April 6-9 at California State University in Fullerton, Calif.

By using a system roughly analogous to the bowl championship series rankings in football, each school accumulates points throughout the year based on performance. MSU competed against teams from universities such as Harvard, Dartmouth, Northwestern and Emory, among others.

This is the second time MSU has earned this title; the team also earned the recognition in 1996, said Jason Trice, director of debate at MSU.

"MSU was fourth in the rankings prior to these two recent tournaments," Trice said. "We surpassed Emory, Rochester and Northwestern during the final stretch of the season to claim the title.

"In an activity that is largely dominated by awards that focus on the success of individual two-person teams, this title represents the strength of the entire MSU debate team throughout the year," he said. "It is a tribute to all the students and coaches that it happened as a result of hard work."

Greta Stahl of Utica and David Strauss of East Lansing, both sophomores, became the youngest of only four teams in the history of intercollegiate debate to reach the "final four" of both CEDA and NDT in the same year. MSU was the only program that had two teams that advanced past the "sweet 16" at either of this year's CEDA and NDT tournaments.

The team of Stahl and Strauss and the team of seniors Austin Carson of Grand Rapids and Calum Matheson of East Lansing collectively won 41 of possible 42 ballots at CEDA up until the final round.

"Next year's team will undoubtedly miss the contributions of this year's seniors, especially the leadership of team captain Austin Carson, but the strength of MSU's young team bodes well for the future of debate at the university," Trice said. "Under the leadership of Will Repko, head debate coach, and Alison Woidan, Mike Eber, Erik Cornellier, John Sullivan, Steven Donald, Jason Russell and Aaron Monick, debate alums and assistant coaches, we had a wonderful season.

"None of this would have been possible without the support of the Honors College, the Office of the President, the Office of the Provost, private donors and others," Trice said. "Without the initiative of James Roper, a professor in the philosophy department who revived the program in the mid-1980s after several years of non-existence, the debate team would not be where it is today."

This year's topic was "The United States federal government should increase federal control throughout the Indian country in one or more of the following areas: taxation, child welfare, natural resource management, environmental protection, gaming, criminal justice and employment."

Members of the 2001-02 MSU debate team are:

BLOOMFIELD HILLS: Anjalie Vats, senior

EAST LANSING: Calum Matheson, junior, and David Strauss, sophomore

GRAND RAPIDS: Austin Carson, senior, and Maggie Ryan, freshman

HOLLAND: Gabriel Murillo, freshman

JACKSON: Amber Watkins, sophomore

ROCHESTER: John Groen, sophomore

STERLING HEIGHTS: Suzanne Sobotka, sophomore

UTICA: Greta Stahl, sophomore

AUBURN, KAN.: John Rood, freshman

LOGAN, UTAH: Aaron Hardy, freshman

CEDA Seasonal National Championship Final Rankings

1. Michigan State University 171
2. Rochester University 160
3. Northwestern University 160
4. Emory University 156
5. Whitman College 146
6. University of California - Berkeley 144
7. Liberty University 136
8. Dartmouth College 130
9. University of Vermont 126
10. University of Southern California 122
11. Catholic University
12. Wayne State University
13. Army
14. California State University - Chico
15. West Georgia State College
16. Mary Washington State University
17. Fort Hayes State University
18. Gonzaga University
19. New York University
20. California State University - Fullerton
21. Wake Forest University
22. Arizona State University
23. University of Pittsburg
24. North Texas University
25. Harvard University
26. University of Michigan
27. Vanderbilt University
28. Emporia State University
29. University of Texas
30. Boston College