Our Drury Debate Union has done it again. While Drury students were at classes and having an ordinary week, our debaters were in Spokane, Washington at Whitworth University scoring big at their national tournament. The International Public Debate Association (IPDA) National Tournament was held from March 24 to 27. They returned to Springfield on March 28 having placed second in the nation.

Debate Union had a hard-fought victory. Many placed in team debate but some were recognized individually. Ayesha Ahmed and Emily Collier made it to octofinals in team debate. Lindsay Duede received second competing with her partner, third place for season long speaker in varsity, and fourth place competitor in varsity.  Jerrica Shine and Mallory Pinson were fifth for season long partner debate. Collier and Duede also broke to double octofinals for individual debate.

For those that are unfamiliar with debate, Pinson discussed how the tournament was structured.

“The tournament started off with the team division, when competitors do the activity with a partner, for example, my partner is Jerrica Shine. Each competitor will be assigned a side–affirmative or negative–and will compete to either affirm or negate the resolution. After being assigned a side, competitors will choose their resolution (out of five different resolutions), and then have 30 minutes to prepare. The tournament was structured like many other tournaments, with four rounds of team debate and eight rounds of individual debate,” Pinson explained.

According to Whitworth University News, the university hosted over 200 students at the tournament. Schools in attendance varied from large public state universities like Boise State University and Mississippi State University; smaller, private universities like Colorado Christian University, Southern Methodist University, and Drury University; and community colleges like Lee College in Texas and Lower Columbia College in Washington. Drury Debate saw some familiar faces but this being nationals meant the competition was all over the board.

Overall, we have much to celebrate here at Drury. But, as Collier explained, it did not come easy.

“This was a really competitive tournament,” Collier said, “which makes sense considering it was Nationals. I didn’t have a single round that I felt was won easily by either side. In individual, I had an awesome round about Volkswagen’s “Diesel-gate” against the guy that got second in varsity. I actually ended up winning that round, and it was a really competitive round that I definitely enjoyed. We hit a lot of new competition, as well as several teams we had already seen, so there was a nice mix.”

So, what is next now that the semester is winding to an end? Drury Debate Union is different than our university athletic teams in this regard because debate has no end.

Pinson said, “It’s never the end for Drury Debate. We will be continuing our practices until the end of the school year, and potentially do a few round table discussions over various topics to keep up our debate ‘edge.'”

Our Drury Debate Union continues working, despite impending due dates and finals around the corner. You can still find them practicing in the basement of Burnham Hall. This hard work and dedication is what lead to them to placing in Nationals, and they are not about to stop now.

Article written by Ciara DuBan