KU debaters finish 2nd at pair of tournaments in Lexington, Kentucky

LAWRENCE — University of Kansas debaters John Marshall, Lawrence, and Graham Revare, Prairie Village, reached the championship final at the JW Patterson Debate Tournament, hosted by the University of Kentucky from Sept. 28-30, taking second place in a field of more than 100 teams from across the country. The KU duo also took second place at the Run for the Roses Tournament, a round robin invitational for the top seven teams in the country, also in Lexington, Kentucky, Sept. 25 and 26.

The Kansas duo competed in 17 debates over six days, compiling a record of 14-3 over the two tournaments. They also racked up individual speaking accolades. At the round robin, Revare was the top speaker, and Marshall the third-place speaker. At the regular tournament, Marshall was the top speaker, and Revare was the second-place speaker.

Marshall and Revare began their week competing at the Run for the Roses invitational for the preseason top seven teams in the country, winning four of six debates. They defeated California State University at Long Beach, Emory University, Dartmouth College and Michigan State University while losing debates against the University of Michigan and Harvard University. Emory University won the round robin with a 5-1 record with their only loss coming to KU.

After a day off between tournaments, Marshall and Revare went undefeated in the preliminary rounds of the JW Patterson tournament to advance to the elimination rounds as the top seed. In the preliminary rounds, they collected wins over the University of Oklahoma, Dartmouth College, Liberty University, the Naval Academy, Emory University and the University of Michigan. The win over Michigan avenged one of their two losses at the round robin tournament.

In the single elimination rounds, they beat Baylor University, the University of Texas at Dallas, Dartmouth College and a team from Emory University to advance to the championship debate against the top team from Emory. Kansas had defeated Emory in the championship debate at the Northwestern University tournament two weeks before. This time, Emory was victorious on a 2-1 split decision. It was the third meeting between the two teams this year, with Kansas winning two of the three meetings.

Marshall and Revare are now 24-4 on the season.

 “John and Graham are incredibly talented and hard-working debaters and are also a joy to coach,” said Alaina Walberg, KU assistant debate coach.

Revare said, “We are very thankful for the hard work of the coaches and the support of our teammates that has been instrumental to our success.”

A second pair of KU debaters also had an excellent showing at the Kentucky tournament. The team of Rose Larson of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and Luna Schultz of Houston, Texas, were also 6-0 in the preliminary rounds and advanced to the elimination rounds as the third seed at the tournament.

In the preliminary rounds, they defeated Samford University, Dartmouth College, two teams from the University of Michigan and two teams from Emory University. 

In the first elimination round, they defeated one team from Emory University before dropping to another team from Emory that went on to win the tournament in the round of 16. Larson and Schultz are now 14-4 on the season.

A third KU team went 4-2 in the preliminary rounds and qualified for the single elimination debates. 

The team of Owen Williams of Lee’s Summit, Missouri, and Zach Willingham, Topeka, won debates against James Madison University, the University of Texas and two teams from the University of Houston. 

They lost debates against teams from Binghamton University and Emory University. In the single elimination debates they were knocked out by the second-seeded team from Michigan State University.

In addition, KU debaters Maddie Doyle, Prairie Village, and Ava Levin, Leawood, took fifth place at a tournament hosted by Missouri State University from Sept. 20-22. 

Doyle was the top individual speaker at the tournament, and Levin was the third-place speaker at the tournament. 

Doyle’s first-place speaker award meant that KU has had the top debater at every tournament the squad has attended so far this year.

“We are very pleased with the effort and performance of the entire debate squad, but as Coach Self would say, we need to ‘keep loading the wagon’ because we have a very long season ahead of us,” said KU head coach Brett Bricker.

Scott Harris, the David B. Pittaway Director of KU debate, said, “We are grateful for the continuing support of the university and alumni that allow us to travel across the country and compete against the best and brightest teams in the nation. We are proud that KU debaters continue to demonstrate that students from the University of Kansas can compete successfully in academic competition against any school in the country.”