KU Debate qualifies third team for National Debate Tournament

LAWRENCE — The University of Kansas Debate team of Brooklynn Hato, Overland Park, and AJ Persinger, Lawrence, have qualified for the 80^th National Debate Tournament, to take place March 26-31 in Houston.

Hato and Persinger were selected as at-large qualifiers for the National Debate Tournament by the NDT Selection Committee based on their record over the course of the season. They are the third KU pair to qualify for the national tournament this year. The duo joins the KU teams of Rose Larson, Milwaukee, with Luna Schultz, Houston, and Owen Owings, Lee’s Summit, Missouri, with Zach Willingham, Topeka, who had already qualified for the NDT.

Hato, a graduate of Shawnee Mission South High School, and Persinger, a graduate of Lawrence Free State High School, finished the regular season as the 16^th-ranked team in the country. They won over 76% of their debates this season, competing at five major national tournaments. Hato is also the president and Persinger the treasurer of the KU Debate squad.

“Qualifying to the NDT as a third team is very difficult because the NDT only allows up to six schools to qualify a third team to the 78-team pool,” said Scott Harris, the David B. Pittaway Director of KU Debate. “To qualify as a third team, you must be one of the top-six third teams in the country. Brooklynn and AJ had an excellent season, and we are very proud of their accomplishments.”

The other schools to qualify three teams for the NDT are Emory University, the University of Michigan, Michigan State University, Northwestern University and the University of Texas-Dallas.

This is the 11^th straight year that KU has qualified three teams for the National Debate Tournament and the 59^th consecutive year that KU has qualified teams for the NDT.

KU has won the National Debate Tournament six times and reached the Final Four 22 times. Only Northwestern University, Dartmouth College and Harvard University have won more NDT championships than KU. KU has reached the finals and finished as the national runner-up each of the last two seasons. KU has finished in the Final Four at the NDT in seven of the past nine seasons.

KU is also in the top four schools in the history of the NDT in a number of categories, including most national championships (fourth), most years in attendance (second), longest attendance streak (third), most elimination round qualifiers (fourth), most elimination round wins (fourth), most top speaker awards (fourth), most total speaker awards (fourth) and most first-round, at-large qualifiers (fourth).