January 29, 2012 - 5:26pm
'U' debate team wins competition at IU
BY ALEXANDRA MONDALEK
After heading to Bloomington, Indiana, the University’s Debate Team won the 2012 Hoosier Invitational Tournament hosted by Indiana University on Jan. 23.
The three-day tournament brought some of the nation’s most competitive universities, including Northwestern University, Michigan State University, the University of Minnesota, the University of Iowa and Vanderbilt University, to the podium.
Aaron Kall, director of the University’s debate program and the Michigan Debate Institutes, said the win was most likely the University Debate Team’s most significant tournament victory since winning the University of Georgia tournament last year.
“The tournament victory was a tremendous achievement and I felt proud of all the hard work and preparation done by the debaters and coaches,” Kall said. “The team worked extremely hard in advance of the tournament and it’s great to see this rewarded.”
Kall said the Debate Team’s biggest goal is to win the National Debate Tournament in March. The team won third place at last year’s event.
Kall said the Indiana tournament victory would help propel the team to the top of the National Debate Tournament Varsity Rankings.
Looking to the future, Kall said the team wants to continue to recruit the top high school debaters in the country. Merit scholarships awarded by LSA and the generosity of debate alums were both said to be reasons for high recruitment rates.
“We want to build upon the momentum from last year’s top recruiting class and ‘re-double’ these outreach efforts,” Kall said.
LSA Sophomore Yao Yao Liu said he thought he grew as a debater as a result of the event.
“The UM Debate coaches listened to a countless amount of my practice speeches throughout this year, which was monumentally helpful in facilitating my growth as a debater and definitely contributed to the Indiana tournament victory,” said Liu.
LSA Sophomore Kevin Hirn said synergy and planning were responsible for the team’s victory.
“The combination of teamwork and preparation enabled us to win the Indiana tournament,” Hirn said. “It felt awesome to win my first college tournament as a Michigan debater.”
