Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the 2020-2021 collegiate debate season has taken place online, through a variety of videoconferencing software. At our first tournament of 2021, senior Mackenzie Brown and freshman Evan Roden are quarterfinalists at the Bowling Green State University Robot Rumble! Congratulations to the three Tulane teams who attended the tournament.
Author: Tulane Debate
Tulane Debate Starts Season Strong at Morehouse
The Tulane University Debate Team started their 2018-2019 season strong with a sweepstakes win at Morehouse College’s annual King Classic. After five preliminary rounds, two Tulane teams broke to semifinals.
Matthew Weber and Ren Allen broke to open semi-finals along with novice team Irene Partsuf and Olivia Berry.
Full Results:
1st place sweepstakes
Semi-Finalists: Matthew Weber and Ren Allen, Irene Partsuf and Olivia Berry
6th place open speaker: Matthew Weber
10th place open speaker: Irene Partsuf
Tulane Breaks at Nationals for Third Straight Year
The Tulane University Debate Team closed out its intercollegiate season with a trip to the NPDA National Championships at Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon. The three-day event featured 128 of the best teams from across the country, including three partnerships from Tulane. The Green Wave was represented by Claire Kueffner & Madison Sullivan, Christopher Hoffler & Matthew Weber, and Ren Allen & Jeremy Evans.
All three teams opened their Nationals campaign with a first-round win, including Hoffler & Weber defeating the 15th ranked pair in the country, a squad from the University of Nevada. Weber was awarded a perfect score of 30 in the round. Kueffner & Sullivan, meanwhile, went on to open the tournament 3-0 through the first three contests. And despite starting the tournament 1-4 through five rounds, first-year debaters Allen & Evans stormed back for three straight wins on Sunday to close their tournament at .500, with a 4-4 record.
Late Sunday, focus for the team centered around Kueffner & Sullivan, who had earned a 4-3 record heading into round 8, making it a true “bubble” round. If the won, they would break and if not, not. After an intense Opp round against Point Loma Nazarene, Claire & Madison emerged victorious and clinched the 24th seed in the break of 47 teams who earned a 5-3 record or better and a trip to partial triple-octofinals.
Their triple-octo was an Opp matchup with one of the host teams from Lewis & Clark, which they carried on a 2-1 decision. This advanced them to the last round of the night, a Gov debate against a Texas Tech team ranked 9th after preliminary competition and 8th overall in the seasonal rankings.
The round was fast and intense, featuring a moving PMC from Kueffner, intense refutation from Sullivan in MGC, and a brilliant Kueffner PMR that Coach Storey Clayton described as the best speech he’s ever seen from a Tulane debater. However, the Texas Tech team responded with three excellent speeches of their own and advanced on a 2-1 decision. The round was a true showcase from all four speakers of what debate can be.
The break was the third straight at NPDA Nationals for Tulane, who reached triple-octofinals in 2016 and quarterfinals for a team including Kueffner last year. This makes Tulane one of just 14 programs that have reached the elimination rounds in 2016, 2017, and 2018, alongside Concordia, El Camino, Lewis & Clark, Mercer, Nevada, Oregon, Pacific, Rice, Texas Tech, Utah, Washburn, Western Washington, and William Jewell. Of those programs, just eight, including Tulane, have been in the double-octofinal round each of the last two years (along with Concordia, Lewis & Clark, Oregon, Pacific, Texas Tech, Washburn, and Western Washington). This is some incredibly elite company for Tulane’s 8-year-old program to be keeping pace with.
Additionally, the team as a whole, across all three partnerships, went .500, finishing with a 12-12 record in preliminary rounds and a 1-1 record in outs. Complete results of the tournament can be found here.
Here are the awards Tulane earned at NPDA Nationals:
Tulane University: 20th Sweepstakes
Claire Kueffner & Madison Sullivan: 23rd Team
Claire Kueffner: 23rd Speaker
The future looks bright for Tulane as just one senior is graduating from a team which also carries no juniors, meaning nearly the entire squad should return for the next two years. Meanwhile, senior Claire Kueffner is graduating as the most decorated debater in Tulane’s team history, having won four elimination rounds at Nationals and four regular season tournaments, alongside a host of speaker awards. She is planning to attend law school next fall.
Tulane Wins Novice Nationals!
This year has featured perhaps the best class of novice debaters ever recruited by Tulane Debate. Last weekend, this novice class demonstrated their prowess with a sterling performance at Novice Nationals at Suffolk University in Boston, Massachusetts.
Two of Tulane’s four teams broke to quarterfinals, with the partnerships of Uma Kumar-Montei & Quinn Burke and Madison Sullivan & Claire Wynne reaching elimination rounds. Both pairs won their quarterfinal matchups, advancing to the final four. Sullivan & Wynne dropped to a team from Rollins, but Kumar-Montei & Burke went on to avenge this loss by beating that team in the final to win the tournament!
Here are the official results to our knowledge at this point – we presume there were also speaker awards, but those have yet to be announced (this post will be updated if and when speaker awards are released):
Uma Kumar-Montei & Quinn Burke – Champions
Madison Sullivan & Claire Wynne – Semifinalists
Tulane Debate will close out one of its most successful seasons in history in two weekends at NPDA Nationals at the College of Lewis and Clark in Portland, Oregon. Three teams will be representing Tulane there. You can support Tulane Debate and our trip to Nationals!
2018 Tulane Carnival Classic Results
This past weekend, the Tulane University Debate Team hosted the second annual Carnival Classic on campus in New Orleans. Four schools traveled to debate Tulane and each other in an open division of parliamentary debate competition which included a mix of varsity and novice debaters. A truly international competition, teams came from as far away as Windsor, Ontario, Canada to take part!
After five preliminary rounds and one round of eliminations, Morehouse College successfully defended their Carnival Classic title in both sweepstakes and the tournament, this year with a finals closeout of their top two teams. Congratulations to Morehouse and all the competitors who performed so well this weekend! Thanks to everyone for coming and we hope to see y’all next February!
Here are the results:
17 teams, 18 novice speakers, 5 schools
Top Novice Speakers (team) speaker points/ranks
10. Daniel Sherman (Abilene Christian PS) 130.6/16.3
9. Alex Olive (Cleveland State MO) 132.5/12.5
8. Hatim Mansori (Morehouse KM) 134/15
7. Cassidy Moon (Tulane MS) 134.5/15
6. Elizabeth Miller (Abilene Christian CM) 135/9
5. Mackenize Brown (Tulane BK) 136/11
4. Carisa Brawley (Abilene Christian BC) 139/7
3. Cam Kipper (Morehouse KM) 139.5/8
2. Madison Sullivan (Tulane MS) 140/8
1. Uma Kumar-Montei (Tulane BK) 141/7
Top Novice Teams (debaters) record, speaker points/ranks
5. Abilene Christian CM (Elizabeth Miller & Brittany Chapa) 2-3, 263/27
Breaking to Novice Finals:
4. Abilene Christian BC (Carisa Brawley & Arnold Charles) 2-3, 265.5/26
Winning Novice Finals on a 1-0 Decision:
3. Tulane MS (Madison Sullivan & Cassidy Moon) 2-3, 274.5/23
Breaking to Open Quarterfinals:
2. Morehouse KM (Cam Kipper & Hatim Mansori) 4-1, 273.5/23
Breaking to Open Semifinals:
1.Tulane BK (Uma Kumar-Montei & Mackenzie Brown) 4-1, 277/18
Top Speakers (team) speaker points/ranks
10. Christopher Hoffler (Tulane HW) 137.5/10
9. Caleb Holley (Morehouse HM) 138.5/8
8. Carisa Brawley (Abilene Christian BC) 139/7
7. Cam Kipper (Morehouse KM) 139.5/8
6. Madison Sullivan (Tulane MS) 140/8
5. Mati Baker (Morehouse BP) 140.5/12
4. Uma Kumar-Montei (Tulane BK) 141/7
3. Amir Price (Morehouse BP) 141.5/9
2. William Coggins (Morehouse CJ) 142/5
1. Johnny Holloway (Morehouse HN) 143/7
Top Teams (debaters) record, speaker points/ranks
10. Abilene Christian BC (Carisa Brawley & Arnold Charles) 2-3, 265.5/26
9. Tulane MS (Madison Sullivan & Cassidy Moon) 2-3, 274.5/23
Breaking to Quarterfinals:
8. Morehouse DM (Wes Matingou & Devon Dudley) 3-2, 270.5/23
7. Morehouse HM (Caleb Holley & Zach Manuel) 3-2, 273/21
6. Morehouse KM (Cam Kipper & Hatim Mansori) 4-1, 273.5/23
5. Tulane HW (Christopher Hoffler & Matthew Weber) 4-1, 274/23
Breaking to Semifinals:
4. Tulane BK (Uma Kumar-Montei & Mackenzie Brown) 4-1, 277/18
3. Morehouse CJ (William Coggins & Jacobi Jefferson) 4-1, 279/17
Closing Out Finals:
2. Morehouse BP (Amir Price & Mati Baker) 4-1, 282/21
1. Morehouse HN (Johnny Holloway maverick*) 4-1, 284.5/24
Sweepstakes for Visiting Schools:
3. Odette
2. Abilene Christian
1. Morehouse
Note: Due to many elimination round match-ups between teams from the same school, only one open elimination round was held. Morehouse HN defeated Tulane BK on a 3-0 decision in this semifinal round.
*Johnny Holloway’s partner, Lanarion Norwood, was severely ill throughout the tournament, so Johnny was allowed to compete as a maverick. We wish Lanarion a speedy recovery!
Motion Fairness
Here are the resolutions debated this weekend, with Gov-Opp wins on each topic:
Round 1: This house opposes offering tax breaks as an incentive to specific corporations. (5-3)
Round 2: This house values privacy above security. (3-5)
Round 3: This house supports the creation of a Kurdish nation. (4-4)
Round 4: This house believes that cryptocurrencies will do more good than harm. (2-6)
Round 5: This house would ban factory farming. (2-6)
Open Semifinals/Novice Finals: This house believes that the 2018 Winter Olympics should bar all athletes from Russia. (0-2)
Tulane Wins Sweepstakes at Tennessee Porch Swing
The Tulane University Debate Team spent last weekend at Carson-Newman University, home of the Tennessee Porch Swing speech and debate tournament, co-hosted by Belmont University. Three teams represented Tulane and all three broke to out-rounds, two in the novice division and one in varsity.
Ren Allen & Jeremy Evans won their novice quarterfinal and semifinal en route to a second place overall finish. On the varsity side, Matthew Weber & Christopher Hoffler dropped a narrow decision in finals to also finish second overall. The combined performances of all three teams, along with three speaker awards, combined to give Tulane the overall Sweepstakes award, representing the best school performance at the tournament.
Here’s the full list of official awards that Tulane earned at the Tennessee Porch Swing:
Tulane University – Sweepstakes Champion
Matthew Weber & Christopher Hoffler – 2nd Varsity Team
Matthew Weber – Top Varsity Speaker
Christopher Hoffler – 6th Varsity Speaker
Ren Allen & Jeremy Evans – 2nd Novice Team
Madison Sullivan & Claire Wynne – 5th Novice Team
Ren Allen – 3rd Novice Speaker
This tournament completes Tulane’s intercollegiate competitions for the semester, with Tulane finishing 1st or 2nd at all three tournaments attended. Tulane will open the spring semester by hosting the annual Carnival Classic on January 26-27, 2018. All NPDA schools are invited to attend!
