The Debate Team added another 1st place performance to their extremely successful 2009-2010 season with a big win at the “Bulldog Battle Debate Tournament” hosted by Butler University in Indiana this past weekend. Traveling as a split-squad, the team also had a successful performance at an extremely competitive tournament hosted by Texas Tech University. If all that was not enough, the latest rankings for the National Parliamentary Debate Association currently list Hillsdale’s team as 7th place overall out of the 205 programs currently ranked by the organization (up from 9th a few weeks ago).
At Butler, 21 teams were entered into the tournament, and the teams of Elliot Gaiser/Stephen Davis and Josiah Hersey/Trevor Anderson both advanced to quarterfinals, where each team won against their opponents on 3-0 decisions. The two Hillsdale teams then drew each other in the semifinal round, and chose to advance Gaiser/Davis into the final round against a team from Indiana University. Gaiser/Davis won on a 3-0 decision, and became tournament champions. Davis was also named Top Speaker at the tournament, with Gaiser placing second out of 42 competitors. The squad as a whole also added a 1st Place Sweepstakes Award, as their combined efforts placed them at the top of the nine schools entered in the tournament. Finally, Individual Events Team member Josh Herring made it to the final round in Extemporaneous Speaking, placing 6th overall at the tournament.

At Texas Tech, which was actually two huge tournaments, the competitive field included 105 teams from 14 states, representing nearly every school that is ranked in the top 50 of NPTE. The team of Alexandria Carraher/ Bryan Leonard cleared into double octofinals at both tournaments. The team of Olivia Wolcott /William Cooney cleared into triple octofinals at the first tournament, and the team of Jake Morgan/Ian Blodger cleared into triple octofinals at the second tournament. In addition to breaking into out-rounds at a nationally competitive tournament, the three teams earned valuable experience for the upcoming NPDA National Tournament, which will also be hosted by Texas Tech University in March. The team will resume its debate schedule on January 29, 2010, when they travel to the Gorlock Gala Tournament at Webster University in St. Louis, Missouri.