The Monmouth University debate team won four team and individual awards at a tournament hosted by the University of Houston, Oct. 14-16.
The Debate Hawk teams of Matt Boyle and Patrick Carbone, and Destiny Goodfriend and Brendan Sheehan won trophies after advancing to the playoff rounds. Both teams reached the playoffs after succeeding in six rounds of debate.
Jacky Bruno (second) and Veronica Belloso (10th) both won speaking awards at the tournament, while the upper division teams of Mariami Ramirez Tsuladze (co-captain) and Julia Schaefer, and Alexa Zupkay and Maria Ortega-Lopez went 3-3 in their six rounds of competition.
The teams of Owen Bros and Belloso, Sierra Michel and Taiphane Orange, Bruno and Sarina Dadoun, and Wiktoria Gawelko and Matthew Gold also scored impressive victories at the tournament.
Monmouth lost as a team in the playoff rounds to the United States Military Academy West Point and Suffolk University. Debate teams from 14 universities competed in the tournament, including West Point, Suffolk, Cornell University, Harvard University, University of Texas at Austin, University of Oklahoma, University of Kansas, and others.
This year’s American Debate Associate topic is: “Resolved: The United States should restrict its nuclear forces in one or more of the following ways: adopting a nuclear no-first-use policy; eliminating one or more of the legs of its nuclear triad; disarming its nuclear forces.”
Professor Joe Patten expressed his thanks to Adjunct Professor Sam Maynard and Sabrina Saenger ’18 for their assistance in coaching and judging the tournament, and to team captains Ramirez Tsuladze, Alex Mykulyn, and Jocelyn Marsh for organizing evidence and leading debate scrimmages in preparation for the tournament.
Students who are interested in learning more about the debate team should contact Patten at jpatten@monmouth.edu. No experience is necessary to join.
