USU 2014: Purdue

For the last tournament of the 2013-2014 season, several members of the URDU’s worlds squad made the long drive out to Purdue University, located in West Lafayette, Indiana, for the 2014 US Universities Debating Championships. The tournament was very well-run and, in an exciting turn of events, included several delicious snack breaks ranging from Insomnia Cookies to make-your-own tacos for dinner. Although none of our partnerships broke to elimination rounds, several of them did very well. Our varsity partnership of Nina & Reefat was one of the top 50 teams at the tournament, while Chris & Miriam were the 6th novice seed and missed the break to novice finals by 5 speaker points.

Outside of rounds, highlights of the tournament included beautiful, sunny weather (a truly shocking occurrence for Rochesterians who are accustomed to snow and wind), team bonding over Chipotle and arm-wrestling competitions, and amusement ensuing from the USU 2014 Twitter Beam that was projected each day in the general assembly auditorium.

The CA team for USU 2014 projected a twitter beam onto the wall of the GA auditorium each day for the hashtag “#usu14.”

In between rounds, the team had some fun exploring the hotel and local area. There was even a riveting arm-wrestling tournament in one of the hotel rooms, with results hotly contested.

Although none of our partnerships broke, USU 2014 was a great way to wrap up a successful season for the URDU and everybody is very excited for what next year will bring for the team!