United States Naval Academy

Over the weekend of January 26^th to January 28^th, the Mary Washington debate team traveled to the United States Naval Academy tournament in Annapolis. In the novice division, two teams competed. Ben Saunders and Sean Slattery reached the final round of the tournament only to lose a close round to Liberty on a 2-1 decision. Both Ben and Sean received speaker awards.

In junior varsity, Farrah Tek and Amanda Gardner finished with a record of four wins and two losses.  Farrah and Amanda defeated a team from the United States Military Academy, but eventually lost in the in the quarterfinals.

Mary Washington sent three teams in the varsity division. Matt Struth and Kevin Kallmyer reached the semifinals, only to lose to top seeded Georgia. Nick Ryan and I reached the final round but also fell to the same Georgia team. All four debaters received speaker awards with Kevin taking top speaker.

In other news, the Mary Washington debate team began intramural basketball with a hard fought defeat on the Monday following the tournament. The Mary Washington Debate team played well but fell 83 to 26. The opposition had several members of the UMW varsity basketball team who mistakenly signed up for the wrong league. The UMW debate team is filing a formal appeal in order to reassert their dominance in both athletic and academic competitions.