Over the first weekend in December, Hillsdale College’s varsity debate teams of Alexandria Carraher/ Bryan Leonard and Olivia Wolcott /William Cooney closed out the final round of competition at the Loyola Rambler Debate Tournament hosted by Loyola University of Chicago. A “closeout” means that the last the two teams to make it into the final round were both from Hillsdale. In addition, the team of Stephen Davis/Stephen Sutherland won the tournament’s novice division. Finally, the teams of Josiah Hersey/Trevor Anderson and Jake Morgan/Ian Blodger reached the quarterfinal round of the tournament.

The teams of Carraher/Leonard and Wolcott/Cooney both went undefeated through six preliminary rounds and lost only a single ballot between the two teams through their closeout of the tournament. By the margin of two quality points, the team of Carraher/Leonard won the tournament with Wolcott/Cooney taking second place. The team members also earned individual speaking awards. In the open division, Jake Morgan took 2nd speaker, Olivia Wolcott 4th speaker, Alexandria Carraher 5th speaker, Bryan Leonard 7th speaker, and Ian Blodger 10th speaker. In novice, Stephen Sutherland took 1st speaker in his division.

Hillsdale College competed against teams from Bethel College, Carthage College, DePauw University, Edgewood College, University of Notre Dame, Loyola University-Chicago, and Wheaton College. The team will resume its debate schedule on January 15 with teams traveling to the prestigious Mile High Swing at Lubbock, Texas, and the balance of the squad traveling to Butler University in Indianapolis.