Great Ending to 1st Semester

Mary Washington ended the first half of the year with a strong performance at both the Wake Forest and Towson tournaments. The varsity team completed its season at the Franklin R. Shirley Classic which took place in Winston Salem. UMW sent the teams of Matt Struth & Kevin Kallmyer and Nick Ryan & I. Nick & I finished with a record of four wins and four losses. Matt & Kevin had a more successful tournament and finished with a record of five wins and three losses, defeating the defending national champion from Emory and defeating Harvard's top team. Matt Struth received recognition as the 17th best speaker. Matt is the first debater in Mary Washington's history to receive a speaker award at the Wake Forest tournament. In the elimination rounds, Matt and Kevin continued their success and defeated one of the nations top teams from UC-Berkeley. In their next elimination round, Matt & Kevin lost on a 2-1 decision to Harvard. The 2007 Shirley Classic was one of Mary Washington’s most successful tournaments in recent history.

The JV and novice debaters, finished their season at the Towson debate tournament which took place in early December. In order to gain valuable experience for the second semester, both the novice and JV debaters debated one level higher than usual. Mary Washington sent a total of four teams, each of which reached the elimination rounds. In the JV division, Amanda Gardner & Farrah Tek and Sean Slattery & Ryan Lott reached the final round and were declared co-champions. In the varsity division, Ben Saunders & Hillary Galbraith reached the octofinals, and the team of Andrew Snyder-Beattie & Eric Halsey reached the quarterfinals.

Matt Pulls in Speaker Award at Wake

The Mary Washington debate team’s flag football squad also finished the semester strong and ended its season with a record of three wins and three losses. In the first game of the season, the team came through with a 21-14 victory led by Jason Martin who threw for three touchdown passes, two of which were to me. In the second game of the season, the team was soundly defeated at the hands of the varsity baseball team. UMW Debate qualified for the playoffs but was unable to compete.