Our Press Release

Here's the official press release from the tournament.

Seawolf Speakers take on the World in Turkey

The Seawolf Debate program just returned from the most competitive tournament of their season, the World Universities Debating Championships hosted by Koc University 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 & Michalea 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 thirty-two teams move into the single-elimination phase of the tournament. The selection of these teams—the top 32 of 400 teams—is, at 8%, 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 UAA’s debate program. Never before have all teams ended on 15 or more points; never have three of UAA’s teams ended in the top 25% 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 US. Those rankings will be released later in January.

The Seawolf speakers now turn their attention to the Cabin Fever Debates, UAA’s intramural debating tournament. That event will open with an introductory session on Tuesday, January 26th and will close with the final round on March 4th. More information may be found at cabinfeverdebates.uaa.alaska.edu. The next competition for the debate team will be the US Universities Debating Championships to be held by Regis University in Denver on April 11-13.

It's over . . .

Sydney took yet another World Championship in debating this year, as their A team emerged from an outstanding final round to capture the majority vote of the adjudication panel.

The Seawolves had an outstanding tournament collectively, even if some hopes for particular teams didn't pan out. Michael and James ended on 17 points but with more than enough speaker points to have broken if they'd captured an 18th point. Michael was tied for 21st speaker overall. Sarah and Drew also ended on 17 points, an outstanding showing. Colin and Michaela closed with 16 points and Akis and Amie with 15; in all a great performance by all teams and more total points (and higher per-team average points) than at any other Worlds we've ever attended.

The really exciting thought is that three of these four teams will be eligible to attend Worlds 2011 in Botswana.

Some relevant links:

The tab from the tournament.

Video from the final round.

It was a well-run and enjoyable tournament at which all of our teams learned a great deal. Here's to next year!