KU Debate teams qualify for National Debate Tournament

From left: Graham Revare, Jiyoon Park, Will Soper, John Marshall. Each pair of students holds a small trophy.

From left are Graham Revare, Jiyoon Park, Will Soper and John Marshall. The teams of Revare and Soper and Park and Marshall have automatically qualified to compete in the 2024 National Debate Tournament.

Tue, 02/13/2024

Scott Harris

LAWRENCE — Two University of Kansas debate teams composed of seniors Graham Revare, Shawnee, with William Soper, Bucyrus, and sophomores John Marshall, Lawrence, with Jiyoon Park, Topeka, were selected as automatic qualifiers for the 2024 National Debate Tournament.

The tournament will take place April 4-8 in Atlanta.

The top 16 teams in the country — based on season-long performance — are selected by the NDT National Committee to receive automatic qualification to the national tournament. This is the 57^th consecutive year that KU Debate has qualified teams for the National Debate Tournament.

In 1973 the National Debate Tournament began recognizing the top 16 teams in the country as automatic qualifiers for the 78-team field. KU has now had 47 teams receive top 16 automatic qualification to the tournament. It is the second consecutive year that KU has had two teams selected as automatic qualifiers and the eighth time KU has had two teams in the top 16.

Joining KU as automatic qualifiers are California State University at Long Beach, Dartmouth College, Emory University (two teams), Georgetown University, Harvard University (two teams), the University of Kentucky, the University of Michigan (two teams), Michigan State University, Northwestern University, the University of Texas and Wake Forest University. The rest of the field will be filled through regional qualifying tournaments and second-round at-large selections over the next few weeks.

KU has finished in the top four at the NDT in six of the past eight seasons including winning the national championship in 2018.

“We are very proud of the achievement of the debaters as they build on the legacy of past generations of KU debaters. We are grateful for the hard work of the coaches who contributed to their success,” said Brett Bricker, the team’s head coach, who won the NDT as a KU debater in 2009.

The coaching staff is led by Bricker along with assistant coaches Azja Butler, Allie Chase, Nathan Davis, Jyleesa Hampton, Derek Hilligoss, Ned Gidley, Nyx Moore, Max Reese, Michael Scott, Jesse Smith and Alaina Walberg. Scott Harris is the David B. Pittaway Director of the debate program.