King’s Debate Society Competes at Novice Championship

The King’s Debate Society braved sub-zero weather and snowy roads this Valentine’s Day weekend, sending seven teams and five judges to Cornell University’s “Trifecta” tournament, featuring the Novice National Championship and open and Spanish divisions.

Two King’s teams, Audrey Cooper (’19) and Grayson Logue (’19), and Trivette Knowles (’18) and Nicole Cordaro (’19), broke to the novice quarter-finals tied for ninth seed coming out of the preliminary rounds. Cooper and Logue advanced through the quarters to the semis and ultimately took second place in the finals, debating regulations on international corporations, Palestinian intifada, and reparations for slavery. Cooper and Knowles tied for 9^th place speaker and Cordaro and Logue for 12^th out of 136.

Kaitlyn Hasegawa (’19) and Kyle Kendrick (’19) tied with the 16^th place team, barely missing the novice quarter-finals.  Christian Tegge (’17) and Kyle Trivanovich (’17), the only King’s team competing in the open division, were 8^th seed coming out of the preliminary rounds and would have advanced had the tournament broken to semis rather than directly to finals.

Coach Josiah Peterson was invited to judge the novice quarter-finals and open-final round. Also in attendance were judges Rachelle Peterson, Abby Poit (’16), Jared Neikirk (’19), Julia Rose Childs (’19), and competitors Onassis Puente (’19), Joel Chapman (’19), Ben Sanders (’18), Campbell Sinnett (’18), Lance Gocke (’19), and Adrian Salinas (’19).

Cooper and Logue have proven themselves a formidable team in regional competition and have now shown they can compete on the national level.

Up next, King’s is hosting its own tournament March 5-6, and will be competing in the North American Universities Debate Championships March 12-13, the North East Regional Debate Championship March 19-20, the Pan-American Championship March 25-27, and the United States University Debate Championship, April 9-10.