UR Debate Hosts Fall 2022 Brad Smith Memorial Debates
September 26, 2022
This past weekend the University of Rochester Debate Union (URDU) hosted teams from across the northeast for the Regional Season Opener for Policy debate. We were again joined by Brad Smith’s wife, Jane Smith, who spoke about Brad, handed out our trophies during our awards ceremony, and honored the tournament by judging a debate for us on Saturday. We are thankful for Jane’s help in remembering Brad, and her own longtime support of our program!
Competitively, UR debaters did well at their first tournament of the season. Team Isabel Edelstein and Paola Almendarez advanced to Quarterfinals with a winning preliminary round record before losing a close 2-1 debate to a team from West Virginia University. Individually, two yellowjacket debaters received speaker awards: Paola Almendarez was recognized as the top speaker in Varsity—at her very first college tournament; and Faith Liu was recognized as the 8th best Novice speaker—at her very first debate tournament ever!
The URDU was proud to host this tournament. We look forward to hosting again in February, when we’ll bring Novice BP debaters from across the country to Rochester!