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.

Liberty Tournament

The first weekend of November proved to be successful for the Mary Washington debate team. The team sent seven teams to compete at Liberty University's debate tournament in Lynchburg, VA.

In the novice division, each of the four teams debating reached the elimination rounds. The teams of Brett Kube & Sean Slattery, and Rachel Adkisson & Ryan Lott reached the Octofinals. Hillary Galbreaith & Ben Saunders also had a good showing and reached the Quarterfinals. However, the most notable accomplishment was by the team of Nathaniel Delano and Medina Ahmadzai who reached the finals of the tournament. Nathaniel and Medina debated well but eventually fell to Boston College. Sean Slattery had an impressive individual showing and received 3rd speaker out of over fifty other competitors.

In the Junior Varsity division, the Eagles entered two teams who both reached the elims. The team of Farrah Tek and Amanda Gardner reached the semifinals and were closed out by the team of Andrew Snyder-Beattie and Eric Halsey. Eric and Andrew reached the finals of the tournament but lost a close round on a 2-1 decision to the United States Military Academy.

In the Varsity division, the only team competing was Nick Ryan and myself. Nick and I reached the quarterfinals and both received speaker awards of fifth and second respectively. Although Mary Washington did not win any of the divisions, the University cleared every team that it entered and had an overall impressive showing.

Big Weekend at Harvard and Clarion

Over the weekend of October 26th to October 29th, Mary Washington enjoyed a historic weekend. The majority of the squad competed at the Clarion University tournament where UMW won every division at the tournament. In the novice division, five teams from the University competed with four reaching elimination rounds. The teams of Eric Halsey & Sean Slattery and Terrell Taylor & Nate Delano closed out the final round of the tournament were named co-champions. In the Junior Varsity division, Amanda Gardner and Farrah Tek finished the prelim rounds with a record of 3 wins and 3 losses but rebounded to win the tournament in the break rounds. In the Varsity division, Jason Martin and Andrew Snyder-Beattie finished the early rounds as the third seeded team and would defeat teams from Boston College, Pittsburgh and Wayne State to win the tournament.

Also competing that weekend were Matt Struth & Kevin Kallmyer who hoped to continue early season success. At the Harvard University tournament, Matt & Kevin would defeat some of the nation's most difficult debate teams including the defending national champion from Emory University. In the prelim rounds, Matt & Kevin took down top ranked teams from Emory, West Georgia and Kansas. After finishing the prelim rounds with a record of 6 wins and 2 losses, the team lost a close round on a 2-1 decision against Missouri State. Matt Struth also received 12th speaker at the tournament which is often considered the most difficult tournament in the first semester. Prior to this past weekend, Mary Washington had never cleared a team at the Harvard tournament.

Mary Washington Starts Strong – (Georgia State, Kentucky and Richmond)

The Mary Washington debate team resumed its winning tradition with a great start to the 2007-2008 debate season. The topic of debate this year is whether the United States federal government should increase its constructive engagement with the Middle East by increasing either foreign assistance or by offering a security guarantee.

At the first tournament of the year, Mary Washington sent two teams to compete at the Georgia State University, which took place from September 22^nd to the 24^th. The two teams that competed were Matt Struth (Jr.) and Kevin Kallmyer (So.), and also Nick Ryan (Sr.) and myself, Sean Jansen (Sr.). Nick and I finished the tournament with a record of 4 wins and 4 losses while Matt and Kevin finished with the preliminary rounds with 5 wins and 3 losses. Due to their success, Matt and Kevin advanced to the elimination rounds at this prestigious tournament for the first time in Mary Washington history.

After opening the season with a quality showing, Matt and Kevin continued their success at the University of Kentucky where they again finished with a 5-3 record and only narrowly missing qualification for elimination rounds. Although, they did not qualify for the elim rounds, it has still been a great start for two of our most promising debaters.

The third tournament of the year took place last weekend at the University of Richmond. The Richmond debate tournament was the first tournament of the year for several of our debate teams including many novice members who joined the team in September. Mary Washington had a total of eight teams competing in the tournament in the Novice, Junior Varsity and Varsity divisions. In the novice division, Mary Washington sent nine debaters that made up five teams; our teams consisted of Rachael Adkisson & Ryan Lott, Brett Kube & Sean Slattery, Nathaniel Delano & Terrell Taylor, Hilary Balbeaith & Ben Saunders and finally Eric Halsey who competed with another novice from the Clarion University. All of the teams competed well and had a great showing for their first tournament. The team of Nathaniel Delano & Terrell Taylor reached the elimination rounds with a record of 4 wins and 3 losses which is very impressive for a team that was facing competition who had several tournaments experience.

In the other two divisions, Mary Washington sent three other teams to compete. In the Junior Varsity division, the team of Amanda Gardner and Farrah Tek had a record of four wins and four losses barely missing elimination rounds. In the Varsity division, the Eagles sent two teams. The first consisted of Jason Martin (Jr.) and his up and coming freshman partner Andrew Squires. Jason and Andrew had a record of 4 wins and 4 losses and also missed elimination rounds based on speaker points. The team of Nick Ryan and I, finished the prelim rounds with a record of 7 wins and 1 loss, defeating teams from Georgetown, Miami (Fla), and the Pittsburgh and achieving the top seed in the tournament. In the elimination rounds of the tournament, we defeated four consecutive teams, two from the University of Towson, one from George Mason and in the final round of the tournament, we defeat Harvard University. The win against Harvard University was a close round in which 2 judges voted for us and 1 judge voted for Harvard. This round avenged our only previous loss in the tournament. For Nick, he has won the tournament for the second consecutive year. Nick received an award for being the 2^nd best speaker at the tournament and I received one for being the 3^rd best speaker out of the other 68 varsity competitors. Overall, the tournament was a great success at all levels. We hope to keep the momentum going as we continue our season.

Farrah and Amanda prepare for Richmond in a practice debate

Jason Working Hard on a Saturday

Debate in the Summer

After the National Debate Tournament ended, the debate community and Mary Washington debate have a bit of a break from the research and intense travel schedule of the year. During the summer the new topic area and potential topics are decided.

The first ballot determined the area that the 2007-2008 topic would cover. The four potential choices were Weapons proliferation, Genetic Engineering, Democracy Promotion and the Middle East. Although all four are relevant and interesting areas, the winning topic was the Middle East.

After having determined the general area to discuss, the topic committee, which is headed by some of the leading debate coaches in country including Mary Washington's coach Tim O'Donnell, then decide which possible resolutions are to debated. The four possible resolutions focus on specific types of Constructive Engagement with countries in the Middle East. The winning topic will be announced at the end of July.