Debaters argue their way to top positions in Kansas tournament

By Rebecca Park

While the basketball team may have gotten more attention last weekend, they were not the only ones representing Grinnell in a regional tournament. At the Capital City Classic Invitational, the Grinnell debate team scored eleven points overall, to tie for third with William Jewell College. Among the highlights, Megan Goering ’08 and Zach Razavi ’08 placed first in the team competition and Michael Billups ’07 was awarded second overall speaker.

The debates were conducted in parliamentary style, meaning teams had 20 minutes to prepare an argument either for or against a government policy. Subjects included “a ton of different current legislation in Congress and some metaphysical, philosophical kind of stuff as well,” Goering said.

According to Billups, the team usually at least “breaks”, meaning they proceed to the next round, at each tournament. But this tournament marked the team’s greatest success in recent years.

In addition to the team’s overall success, Walter Liszewski ’08, Danny Haupt ’09 and Ethan Struby ’10 placed individually. “It’s just gratuitous that we managed to have a team win,” Billups said.

Razavi and Goering, who occasionally writes for the S&B, attributed some of their success to a strong team dynamic they developed when debating together in high school. They also said they benefited from a familiarity with judges’ expectations since the tournament was held in their home state of Kansas. The team was able to perform to the judges’ preferred style of debate, which Razavi described as “very fast, very technical, very high-impact.”

The team also benefited from the relatively relaxed approach to the competition. Because their priorities were “speaking our best and just having a good time,” Goering said, “I think that’s part of the reason we were so successful.”

Despite the team’s success, it is not resting on its laurels. Recent practices have been focused on improving counterargument skills, which judges highlighted as an area for improvement.

The success will not, according to Billups, alter the team’s plans for the future. “As far as the big picture goes,” he said, “[tournament success] won’t encourage us to go to any more debates than we would normally go to, and it wouldn’t make us stop going to debates either.”

Upcoming tournaments include one this weekend at Stanford and the National Parliamentary Debate Association Nationals at Colorado College in the spring. Whether the team hopes to replicate its success is hardly debatable.