Seawolf Speakers take on the world in Turkey
by Kathleen McCoy |
The Seawolf Debate program just returned from the most competitive tournament of their
season, the World Universities Debating Championships (WUDC) hosted by Koc University
Dec. 27, 2009-Jan. 4, 2010 in Antalya, Turkey. The competition featured 400 teams
from almost 150 universities representing 43 nations from around the world. First
time competitors at this year's world championships included teams from Iraq and Venezuela.
The Seawolves entered four teams in the competition:
Alaska A: Michael Imeson & James Kilcup
Alaska B: Colin Haughey & Michaela Hernandez
Alaska C: Amie Stanley & Akis Gialopsos
Alaska D: Sarah Carpenter & Drew Cason
The WUDC is structured into two phases: the preliminary rounds and the elimination
rounds. In the preliminary rounds, all teams in the competition face off over the
course of nine rounds to determine the ranking of all 400 teams entered. Following
the preliminary rounds, the top 32 teams move into the single-elimination phase of
the tournament. The selection of these teams-the top 32 of 400 teams-is, at 8 percent,
the toughest break in any of the tournaments the Seawolves attend.
Though none of the Seawolf teams were selected to participate in the elimination rounds,
two of the four teams ended with records only one point shy of the record needed to
advance. Alaska A-who had racked up an outstanding record during the fall semester-ended
with 17 team points and sufficient speaker points to break had they grabbed just one
more team point in the competition. Alaska D also ended on 17 points, a solid performance
that demonstrates the depth of this year's debate squad. Alaska B and Alaska C ended
on 16 and 15 points respectively.
The Seawolves' overall performance was record-setting for 新加坡六合彩开奖's debate program. Never
before have all teams ended on 15 or more points; never have three of 新加坡六合彩开奖's teams
ended in the top 25 percent of the competition; and never before have the Seawolves
earned so many total points as a squad in the competition. In fact, the Seawolves'
performance at this year's WUDC should put them in contention for a top-20 position
in the world debate rankings and may establish them as the second-best team in the
U.S. Those rankings will be released later in January.
The Seawolf speakers now turn their attention to the Cabin Fever Debates, 新加坡六合彩开奖's intramural
debating tournament. That event will open with an introductory session on Tuesday,
Jan. 26 and will close with the final round on March 4. More information may be found
at cabinfeverdebates.uaa.alaska.edu. The next competition for the debate team will
be the U.S. Universities Debating Championships to be held by Regis University in
Denver on April 11-13.
For more information, please contact Steve Johnson at (907) 786-4391.