King's College
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| The real Darth Vader baby - straight from Baylor University. | Wayne State's Andy Timmons. Now you know why his favorite "argument" is "Argh, matey." |
The first day of competition went well for everyone. In novice, Sean and Chris posted a perfect 4-0 record, defeating Notre Dame, Macalester, Samford, and Loyola ( Chicago ), in consecutive debates. In varsity, after a round one loss, Matt and Tasha won three consecutive rounds, beating teams Northern Illinois and two different teams from Michigan State . And in the junior varsity division, Andy and Brian both continued to learn about policy debate (both were high school Lincoln Douglas debaters) while they also learned how to debate with each other (this was their first tournament together). They had several very close debates, and defeated Macalester in round two.
We spent the evening in Mexican Town , with everyone enjoying the rich flavors of fine Mexican food. Well, everyone except Chris (who ordered a hamburger) and Andy (who originally ordered a cheese omelette). Hats off to Andy, who at least tried to get into the Mexican fiesta by switching to huevos rancheros. He hated them, but props for trying!
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Kelly Young, JCU's former Assistant Director of Debate now heads the show at Wayne State University. Kelly replaced George Ziegelmueller as WSU's Director of Forensics. |
Neil Butt, JCU's second former Assistant Director of Debate ran the tab room for WSU. Neil is pursuing his Ph.D. at WSU and coaches for them. |
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Katie Lavelle, half of JCU's 2000 ADA championship team, is finishing her Ph.D. at Wayne State, where she also coaches. |
Former JCU debaters, Erika Thomas and Michael Grossman also coached at the tournament. Erika is finishing her M.A. at Miami; Mike is in law school at Cleveland State. |
Day two started strong, with all three teams winning both of their morning rounds. Matt and Tasha defeated Macalester and a third team from Michigan State to go 5-1. Andy and Brian got back to .500 by beating Miami ( Ohio ) and a swing team from Capital and Illinois State , and Chris and Sean defeated the hosts from Wayne State and Michigan-Dearborn. Those wins took Chris and Sean to a perfect 6-0 at Wayne State , and a 14-4 preliminary round record through the first three tournaments of their careers.
With their perfect record, Sean and Chris earned a bye in the quarterfinals.
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| WSU always provides an excellent lunch - La Shish! | JCU alums and current coaches, Mike Grossman and Liz Wiley hold court with current JCU debaters. |
Matt and Tasha lost round 7 to Emory and round 8 to Miami (OH), but were still very pleased to reach the elimination rounds with a 5-3 record. Andy and Brian split their last two rounds to finish a very respectable 4-4, but failed to make the elimination rounds on speaker points. Sean and Chris got to take round 7 off (the quarters in the novice division), and then finished the day by defeating Notre Dame for a second time, thus earning a spot in the final round.
Monday morning was not quite as happy. Chris and Sean lost a very close debate in the finals, dropping a 2-1 decision to the hybrid team from Loyola/Century. However, it was a great tournament for them. It marked their third straight appearance in the elimination rounds, their first final round, and continued a trend of winning at least one elimination round at every tournament of their careers and continued an impressive trend of winning one judge's ballot in every one of their three career elimination losses.
Matt and Tasha lost their octafinal round to yet another Michigan State team. Although they would have preferred to continue debating, they were very satisfied with the outcome of the debate, and vowed to spend the next week perfecting answers to a very tight MSU strategy.
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| Chris Schroeder and Sean McClure placed 2nd as a team; 3rd and 5th individually. | Matt Gayetsky and Tasha Forchione reached the octafinals as a team; Matt was 6th individually. |
Overall, it was a great showing for JCU, with two elimination round appearances, a final round appearance, and three speaker awards for individual excellence. Matt Gayetsky placed 6 th in the 64 debater varsity division. Meanwhile, Sean McClure placed 5 th and Chris Schroeder 3rd in the novice division.
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Thanks to a ton of help from Mike Grossman and Elizabeth Wiley who helped all weekend with the judging and coaching.
Next up: The Catholic University of America