URDU Hits DC For USU Championships; Finishes As Finalists

This past weekend the debate union made its annual trip to George Washington University in Washington, D.C. for the US Universities Eastern Championship debate tournament. Nearly thirty students, many of them novices, made the trip for the difficult competition.

In the end we had some old faces and new faces in elimination rounds – with two teams breaking and one making it to the final round – and we received numerous recognitions for our individual speakers’ performances as well.

Some of the most exciting news this weekend was the team of Niki Linganur and Graeme McGuire reaching Quarterfinals. Both of these debaters only began debating in college, and it was Niki’s first time breaking into elimination rounds after only debating for a little over one year. These students continue to impress us with their drive and determination against many students with years more experience than they have. First-year student Warish Orko also made elimination rounds with partner senior Ben Frazer, and those two debated right into the final round and lost in a very closely contested debate. Competitively the URDU made big waves in D.C. this weekend.

As for individual recognitions, we had success in winning several speaker awards. URDU debaters won all of the top English-as-a-second-language speaker awards: Warish Orko was named top ESL Speaker, Amanda Liang was awarded second best ESL Speaker, and Mikhail Arinarkin was named third best. Warish Orko also took home the 2nd place first-year speaker award.

The 2018 version of the UR Debate Union (along with some alums!) at the USU Eastern Championships at George Washington University.

We are proud of all of the amazing debaters who have gotten so good at this activity over their college years, and those who have a bright, bright future ahead of them. We also recognize our many amazing novices, who demonstrated that winning is not the only aspect of debate to enjoy – it’s stepping up and speaking proudly in each new debate round. In spite of a tough run of lower rankings, these new members of the URDU kept up their positive attitudes and really went for it every round, even after they knew they would not be making elimination rounds. This fact alone shows how much potential our team has in coming debate seasons. Onward and upward!

Finally, we are very happy to have been joined by several alums this weekend. Syed Reefat Aziz, former URDU president, and Junior Ndlovu, former USU-breaking debater, were both able to judge for us, and Chris Perkins was on hand tabbing the tournament. Nick Heitsch also stopped by to say hello at the end of the day on Saturday. It was great to see all these familiar faces and catch up.

Now we move on to our next competition: Policy Debate Novice and JV Nationals at West Virginia University this weekend. Go Yellowjackets!